Street Rat
by Samacoy
Summary: Violet grew up on the streets after she ran away from home as a child. When she's dragged away from her life as a lower-level criminal into a world full of myths, can she overcome all she's known and help save the world? Or will being special be too much?
1. Chapter 1: Something in the Distance

I fully realize that I am, in fact, not a normal teenager. My life is not one of those ridiculous Hollywood stories that go, "_I was a normal kid until something completely changed my life._" You see, I've always known that I was different. Strange things have always happened to me and I can remember strange creatures trying to hurt me as a child, except I always assumed those were dreams.

There was an event that completely changed my life, but I'm not a Princess. I'm not Cinderella and I didn't win the handsome Prince and ruled the kingdom. No. I am Violet Carlisle and I am a hero.

"Watch where you're going you filthy sewer brat!"

I turned to glare at the rich old woman I nearly ran over with my skateboard. She wore a fur coat and pearls; she was just asking to be robbed. I turned my attention back to my friends, dodging people on the sidewalk as we made our way down 8th street towards the skate park. As we passed a pretzel stand, my best friend Jack grabbed a pretzel right from a man's hands as he moved into take a bite.

The stand owner and the man shouted after us, calling for police, but we were hidden amongst the many Chicago people moving quickly up and down the sidewalk. Rounding the corner, we came to the skate park where the rest of our friends were. I slid up right next to Jack as he hopped off his skateboard and bit into the stolen pretzel.

"That wasn't very nice Jack," I remarked as we sat down on the half-pipe where everyone was sitting. The shaggy blonde hair boy rolled his green eyes and spoke through his full mouth.

"Since when do you care about nice? You steal everyday!"

Jack's brother, Shane, snickered and laid down next to his girlfriend, Macy. Looking around, I noticed that we were all very dirty. Our hair was full of grease and caked with dirt; it'd been months since any of us had a proper bath. We'd all run away from our homes and banded together over the years. Since then, we stole for food and lived wherever we could find a dry place that was well hidden from real criminals.

Every single one of us had been in the foster system and were sick of being treated like second class citizens; we created our own family that always had each other's backs. But it was different when Jack and Shane joined the group; they were treated like Gods amongst mere mortals.

Jack finished off the pretzel, ignoring the hungry look from some of the younger kids in our gang; the youngest was 8 and ran away just a few weeks ago from an abusive foster mom. I rolled my eyes as he grabbed my hand; he considered me his girlfriend. He was cute, but I saw him as a brother, not a boyfriend.

As Jack rubbed my hand with his thumb, I saw something move out of the corner of my eyes. Grover, a handicapped boy who joined our gang a few months ago stood and looked straight ahead, seemingly frozen with fear. I frowned and turned my attention to where he was looking.

Immediately, I could feel the fear radiating off of him. Standing in the distance was a giant figure of a bull.

Okay, so suckish beginning, but whatever. I've had this idea in my head ever since I read the Last Olympian so I decided to write it and put it on here. Let me know what you think of this first chapter and if I should put some more chapters on. I know it's weird so far…but…it's my first Percy Jackson fanfiction….yep.

XxSamacoyxX


	2. Chapter 2: Death of the Monster

I ran faster than I ever have before. Grover and I were running in sync, the bull quickly charging after us. I was amazed at just how fast Grover was running, mostly because of the fact that he limps when he walks and needs to use crutches. But more importantly, I was amazed by the fact that there seemed to be a bull no one but the two of us could see.

Jack claimed he didn't see anything when I desperately tried to pull him out of the way of the oncoming bull. Shane started freaking out, thinking I was losing it, but I didn't have time to worry about them thinking I was crazy. The bull was rapidly approaching and Grover started dragging me away with him.

We ran at full speed, not daring to so much as look back. I feared that if I did happen to look back, the bull would be right there, ready to take me down in a heartbeat. I pushed people out of my way as I ran; they all shouted after me, quickly accusing me of taking something and being on the run from the cops, but I was too busy to care.

I was running for my life.

Almost out of nowhere, Grover grabbed my arm and turned towards an alleyway. We pushed up against a dirty wall and a few seconds later, the bull charged passed us, seemingly not noticing that we were now out of it's sight.

I tried to catch my breath; beside me, Grover did the same. But I was still afraid of the beast coming back, so I tried to be as quiet as possible.

"Why didn't anyone see that thing," I asked between heavy breaths.

Grover suddenly lost all emotion in his face and straightened up from his awkwardly bent position; before he went stony, I caught a glimpse of fear on his face. Fear of what, though, I didn't know.

"Listen, Violet. There's something I have to tell you, but I can't tell you here. You aren't safe here and I need you to trust me," Grover said calmly, as if I was a tad bit slow or if he'd repeated this line a thousand times. I felt a kick in my gut, like I should trust and follow him, but my head told me better.

I backed up slowly, but hit something hard and hairy. I turned around and came face to face with the bull.

Up close, I could see that it wasn't just any ordinary bull. No, it looked as if it went through some hardcore genetic testing. It was huge, bigger than Grover and I combined. It stood on its back legs, like a man. What was most shocking about it? It was wearing pants.

In the blink of an eye, I was flying across the alley and straight into a brick wall. I didn't see the bull hit me or how he even hit me in the first place, but it hurt. I felt my head and shoulders collide with the wall; the sickening snap of my collar bone reassured me that I was definitely not just going to brush the dirt off my pants and walk away fine.

The pain shot through me as Grover charged forward, digging something out of his pants. I thought he was going to pull a knife or gun or something, but no; it appeared that he pulled a block of wood from his pants. A second later, the wood was at Grover's lips and a soft hum of music began spouting from the hunk of wood.

The bull backed off, but seemed to just become angrier. It charged forward, flinging Grover out of the way and heading towards me. Despite the pain in my shoulders, I managed to stand up and stagger forward. I hoped that Grover would have the sense to run and get help while I distracted the bull.

The bull crept towards me slowly, seemingly smiling. I caught a quick look behind me: it was a dead end. I had nowhere to run, no way of escape. I knew I had to cripple the bull to just make it out of here alive.

I looked around for something to hit the bull with and my eyes landed on a sharpened pole sitting near Grover, just behind the bull; something in my gut told me to pick it up and swing with all my might.

Time seemed to move slowly. The bull had suddenly lunged, Grover screamed at me to move and I ran at the bull at full speed; as soon as time seemed to become its normal pace, I slid under the bull, him running straight into the wall behind me. I reached the pole and Grover in just a second; despite my shoulders screaming in protest, I bent down and snatched up the pole, turning to wait for the bull to attack.

It seemed stunned from smacking into the wall, but it quickly recovered. Turning on its heel and snorting in fury, it charged once more; I swing with all I had. In one swift movement, the bulls head was clean off and the beast's body disappeared in a spray of sand.

I stayed tense for a minute, but quickly felt the adrenalin that was just running through my body retreat. Suddenly, I was dead tired and dropped the pole. Grover smiled and stood up, "I knew it! I knew you were able to do it, Vi!"

Eyes wide, I turned to glare at Grover. "You're so dumb, Grover! You were supposed to run and get help!"

He shook his head, continuing to smile for a minute until it slowly faded. "No one would have came and helped us, Violet. No one could see that bull…look at Jack and Shane; they didn't see it."

I was confused, hurt and tired. I didn't understand and I don't know if I even wanted to understand, but I didn't care at that moment. Grover muttered something about going somewhere safe called Camp Half-Blood, but I tuned him out and just followed him towards the train station.


	3. Chapter 3: Escaping The City

I didn't want to be mean and run away from him, but I had to. Grover kept smothering me and was starting to really freak me out. I wish he'd go back to the way he was when we'd found him. Back then, we were on a run for food for the rest of the group when we stumbled upon Grover. I felt really bad for Grover because he was a handicapped kid that was getting beat up by a couple of teenagers.

We brought Grover back to our 'home' and welcomed him into our makeshift family. He'd really done his part; he couldn't get in and out of convenient stores to steal food, and he certainly sucked at taking a few bucks from purses, but Grover was a good lookout and was decent at finding us a place to sleep for the night.

But maybe we shouldn't have let him into our group, because he was completely nuts.

He dragged me down to the train station to get a one-way ticket to New York. I'm not sure how he was exactly going to get us on the train, unless he had money, which didn't seem likely. Grover kept babbling about some camp that would help me, but I just kept thinking that he was the one who need some help.

When we got to the station, the lady selling tickets seemed pretty skeptical of the two of us; after all, we were wearing ratty clothes stained from the inability to clean them often. Our hair was greasy and need to seriously wash up. But Grover acted like we were wearing first-class clothing and plopped a couple hundred dollars onto the counter.

And we thought he was sharing.

Anger ran through my body at the sight of the money. Here we were, our entire group having to resort to stealing a little bit of food just to keep the hunger pains away and lived in a skate park, and he had the audacity to keep money from us?

The woman handed Grover two tickets and pointed him in the direction of a gate that said "Chicago-New York." Grover grabbed my arm and started pulling me in the direction of the gate. He looked around for a few moments before I was even allowed on the train.

Our seats were decent and comfortable; I felt so strange being in somewhere so nice. The compartment was small and Grover had to sit across from me. We sat in silence for a few minutes until the train suddenly lurched forward and we were leaving the station.

I watched the city of Chicago zip by and in no time, we were zooming through the land surrounding the city. It was then that I decided to start questioning Grover.

"Where did you get the money?" I tried to keep my voice from sounding accusatory, but that was exactly what I was doing.

He shifted uncomfortably, guilty looking. "I've had it since you guys took me in. I had a lot more when you first found me, but I've been spending it on you all along the way."

I was definitely confused now. How had he been spending money on us and we didn't even know?

Almost reading my mind, Grover responded, "I knew you guys would go days, sometimes weeks without being able to successfully pick-pocket people, so I would convince people to let you easily take money from them." He grimaced slightly, "I suppose that makes me a bad person-letting you just steal like that. Perhaps Chiron's right, you're Herm-"

Grover cut off when he saw my expression. I guess it was a mixture between anger, relief and confusion, because I felt all three. I was angry because it gave us false hope that we could actually make it on our own, then again, he managed to give us money for food during days that we'd usually just starve. Confusion…well, that's only because this had been a really weird day.

"Look Violet, I did what I had to for you to trust me. I can't go into detail right now, but it's vital that you trust me. I'll give my life for you Violet, I can guarantee that I'll put myself into danger before I let you get hurt again." Grover's eyes were wide and sincere, as if he'd known me all his life and was his best friend.

Not knowing what else to do, I nodded dumbly.

* * *

We were somewhere in Ohio when Grover fell asleep. We stopped for a few minutes at a station on the border and that's when I ditched him. My gut told me to trust Grover, but I just wanted to go back home to my family, the kids I've rolled with since I was 10 years old when I ran away. We always took care of one another and loved each other, so I couldn't just abandon them.

I slipped away quickly and quietly; no one seemed to notice my absence. The train station was in the middle of nowhere and had a large area of woods just across the street. Like a shadow in the night, I was deep inside the woods, going in the opposite direction of the now speeding away train.

Grover was on his way to the other side of the country. It would probably take him an hour to wake up and realize I was gone and more than 8 hours before the train would stop and he'd be in New York. By the time he would be able to get back to Chicago, I would be back home and would convince the group to not accept Grover back into the group.

Because lets face it…Grover's crazy.


	4. Chapter 4: Captured

After spending six years living on the streets of New York, I thought I was pretty good at surviving. Most people are too attached to their comforts of home and would have a horrible time trying to find a nice deserted building to sleep in or pick-pocketing money. It was just something I did well.

But living out in the middle of the woods and having not knowing the lay of the land was a little more difficult and I must admit, I've been failing miserably. Just a few hours after I ditched Grover on the train, I started walking back towards where we'd come from. The only problem was that it started raining and I really sucked at direction.

I only got deeper and deeper into the woods; eventually the rain was falling so hard that I had to stop and huddle under a tree to get the little protection it offered me. I was so cold and so wet, and I could barely make out my own hands in front of me, it was so dark.

I didn't get much sleep that first night. I swear I kept hearing strange sounds like growling and a swish of tail just feet away from me. I couldn't see anything and I really tried to not think about what was in these woods.

To make matters worse, my shoulders were still aching from where I got slammed into the wall by the bull. When I was on the train, I checked to see the damage and it was all bruised and swollen; I knew I had a fracture.

I contemplated if abandoning Grover was a good idea. When I first got off the train, I thought it was. I imagined that I would be able to survive, like it was a city, but it was a far cry from New York.

* * *

I woke up the next morning with my clothes soaking wet, but the rain had long been gone. The sun was shining brightly and I could clearly see that I was a in a small clearing. It was here that I decided to try and set up a camp.

I didn't know how to make a tent out of sticks. I couldn't make a fire to save my life. I had to resort to eat unknown berries that I'm surprised didn't kill me. I slept under the tree that I did that first night and I drank from a small stream that was nearby.

Each morning, I would wake to find strange foot prints circling around the little clearing. My first thought was that it was a wolf, but they were much larger than a wolf's footprint would be. Each day, I would notice that the footprints got just a little bit closer to me, as if whatever made the footprint was getting closer to attack me.

But the fourth morning was different. There were no eerie footprints; that alarmed me the most. I got up to go drink from the stream like normal, walking ever so carefully. I had the feeling that someone was watching me.

When I reached the stream, I cupped my hands together and dipped them into the water and drank deeply. I strained my ears hard to see hear if there was anyone near me. Silence. Silence. Silence. Bird chirp. Silence. Silence. Twig snap. Sound of running towards me.

I threw the water back into the stream and sprang up, turning as I did so. Coming running towards me was a blonde haired boy with a terrible scar running along his face. Behind him, several teenagers had bows raised, arrows cocked in my direction.

I ran for the woods on the other side of the stream. I heard the whistle of arrows being fired and the splashing of the boy's boots as the slapped across the water. As fast I could, I ran into the cover of dark trees.

I let instinct guide me. I jumped over fallen trees and avoided stumps that I would trip on. I could hear the boy behind me, his boots making a loud thumping sound. In further behind him, I could hear shouts of the teenagers ordering for them to cut through the forest to block my way out.

I looked briefly behind me and saw the boy with a bow in his hands, aiming an arrow right for me. As he released the arrow, I jumped to the side. I rolled and tumbled down a small hill and into the extension of the stream.

I landed face first into the water; the rest of my body followed and landed onto the rocks. The first thing I noticed was that I couldn't move. The arrow hit me in the shoulder as I tried to jump out of the way. Now, I was paralyzed.

The boy cursed from above me and quickly jumped down into the stream, stirring the water. I watched helplessly as his black boots marched up to my face. Then, he kneeled down, grinning in my face.

"You seem to have a lot of spirit, girl. We could really use you."

His voice was smooth and friendly. I didn't trust it. He was a good looking guy, though. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. A strange scar, however, was running down his face.

He looked down at my shoulder, "Sorry I had to paralyze you. We were just afraid that you'd run away from us or that you'd hurt us. You see, " he pulled the arrow out of my shoulder ,"we're here to help you."

Help me? He shot me!

The boy chuckled, like he could read my mind.

"Now, I know what you're thinking! How can we help you after we just chased you down and shot you? Well, we can tell you what Grover couldn't….the truth."

I caught one last glimpse of the boy before I was suddenly wrenched into a world of darkness.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know, this chapter sucks a little. But that's only because I don't know exactly how to describe her being out in the woods and all alone.

On another note, thank you so much to those of you who think my story's pretty good, it means a lot to me. It's my first Percy Jackson fan fiction, so I do hope it's going well. And eventually, we'll get into the good action of the story. Any guesses of what's going to happen?


	5. Chapter 5: Into The Ocean

I was in a lot of pain when I first woke up. Where my body slammed into the rocks in the stream, there were cuts and bruises. Every inch of my body had a dull ache that would get worse with each heartbeat.

I didn't know where I was, but I was most definitely not in the woods anymore. I was lying in a bed in a plain, white room. The clothes I'd run away in where neatly folded next to me; looking down, I noticed that I was now where a white tee shirt and blue jeans. I sat up slowly, not trusting my surroundings. Standing up, I slipped my feet into my sneakers that were sitting right next to the bed. Slowly, I crept across the tiny room and opened the door leading out.

The immediate sensation that came to me was the thick smell of sea salt. I frowned and moved forward a few feet, coming in contact with a railing. Looking over it, I realized that I was on a ship and in the middle of the ocean.

Panic began to set in immediately. I turned on the heel and looked up and down the hallway both ways; no one was in sight. Deciding quickly, I ran left and down the hallway at full speed. I turned many corners but didn't come across anyone. The air was dead with an eerie silence and it seemed as if the place had been abandoned for years.

I came to a flight of stairs, leading to the upper decks. I took the steps three at a time and quickly made it up. The second I did, however, I'd wished that I'd stayed asleep in the bed.

In front of me where dozens of teenagers in full armor battling each other with swords with full aggression. Behind them, women with two serpent-like tails in place of legs were also fighting. But they didn't seem to be fighting with anger…more like practice.

The boy who'd taken me down in the forest was standing next to a man in a tuxedo and a tall boy with an eye patch over his left eye. He calmly watched the odd women and teenagers fight one another until he turned his head towards me; he smiled and started walking over. The man in the tux and the boy with the eye patch moved to go with him, but the boy just raised his hand to stop them.

He looked so awkward as he moved towards me, like he really didn't want to be here. He stopped in front of me, grinning brightly.

"Did you have a nice nap, Violet," he asked in a cool, confident voice.

"Who are you and why am I here?"

His grin disappeared slightly with the roughness in my voice; did he expect me to be excited about being kidnapped?

"My name is Luke and you're a demigod."

I did a double take. This boy was talking nonsense. I vaguely remember hearing about demigods back in grade school before I took off from the foster home I was staying at and that they were the children of the Greek Gods, but it's not like they were real or something; they're just myths.

He grinned at me like that everything in life was explained then and there and that I should be thanking him or something.

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you on crack or something because you seem delusional! The Greek Gods aren't real!" All of a sudden, a couple of the teens stopped fighting and looked over my way, shocked by my outburst. Automatically, I felt like I committed some big faux pas.

I looked into the boy's eyes: they were a beautiful shade of blue, but looked tired and old, like he's been through a lot. They weren't filled with anger like I half expected them to be, but rather seemed a bit amused, like he'd been in the same situation many times before.

"Walk with me, Violet," he said gentle, putting his arm around my shoulder and walking me away from the large group and towards the railing. He dropped his arm as soon as we hit the railing and looked out into the ocean. The boy, Luke, seemed like he's depressed and sad. I didn't know him or trusted him, but I automatically felt bad for him. My first impression was that he probably grew up too fast.

"I know how you feel, Violet, not believing the Gods are real. I didn't believe it when I was first told that I was a demigod," he grinned darkly. "But they are real and they're starting a war against the Titans."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. I remember from school that the original Gods defeated the Titans when Zeus freed his siblings from Kronos' stomach, where they'd grown after he ate them. Even if the Gods were real, didn't they already defeat them?

Slowly, I started. "So let's pretend that the Gods are real. Didn't they already throw the Titans in prison or something?"

Luke nodded slowly as he leaned against the railing, seemingly waiting for me to take this all in.

"And yet they're starting a war with them again?"

Once again, Luke nodded, but seemed to have more to say. "You see Violet, the Titan Lord Kronos and his followers are rising again. They were thrown into the depths of Hell after their children overthrew them and lived in torture for millenniums. Now, they want their revenge over something that shouldn't have happened. They're victims and the Gods are their punishers."

This made sense, I guess. I remember that Kronos only ate his children because he learned that they were going to take over the world, so he couldn't have been all the bad, could he? Whether or not, I still had a few more questions.

"So what does this have to do with me," I asked.

Once again, a smile crept onto Luke's face as he pushed away from the railing and stood straight. "You can help us give Lord Kronos and the Titans their power back and stop the Gods. As a demigod, you're expected to fight for you parents' honor, but how are you supposed to when they haven't even claimed you?"

I frowned, processing this. Unclaimed…like the Gods just didn't want everyone to know that you were their child or something? "Plus," Luke continued on, "even after they claim you, they don't help you. Countless demigods have died because their parents refused to help them."

"Did your parent ever help you," I asked questioningly.

Immediately, Luke's face darkened. "No Violet, my father never helped me or my mother."

After a few awkward moments of us staring into each others' faces, Luke lightened up and seemed okay again.

"So, Violet, what do you think? Will you help us fight the Gods and those foolish enough to defend them?"

I thought long and hard. I knew it hardly seemed logical to trust someone who kidnapped and gave me very little information, but Luke seemed convincing enough. My Godly parent hasn't claimed me in my fifteen years of life; when my mother died in a car accident and left me in the foster care system, no God bothered to come and help me out a little, even though I was just five when I was left all alone.

However, what about the other side of the fence? Where the Gods evil? Did they have a reason for not claiming all of their children? And what about all the children they did claim-where they really just stuck in the mud?

Slowly, I managed to ask, "Do you know who my father is?"

Luke frowned a little, almost sympathetically. "I'm sorry, but no. At least the list is a little narrowed down that you know the gender of your mortal parent. I was under the impression that you were an orphan."

"I am…she died."

He nodded slowly, "I'm very sorry to hear that. But you still haven't given me an answer. Are you willing to join us? Or do you want to go back to the woods?" After a few more seconds of thinking, I came a logical conclusion.

"I'll stay."

* * *

I was on the ship, which Luke calls the Princess Andromeda, for a couple of weeks. I started learning how to train like I saw the other teenagers (who I learned were also demigods that chose to fight for the Titans) do; Luke himself decided to teach me how to use a sword. According to a girl named Dominique (daughter of Nike), I was pretty good as I could easily defend myself against Luke, who learned quickly that he could attack me with more force than when training with the other demigods.

Fighting seemed to come naturally to me and the demigods took it upon themselves to teach me why the Gods were evil and Kronos deserved to rule once again. I would spew reasons why I pledged myself to Kronos and the Titans, but in truth, I didn't know why.

They said that the Gods didn't love their children; the Gods were cowards and used their children as shields; they overthrew the Titans for no good reason; they cast away countless heroes for their own selfish gain; they tried to keep mortals in line by depriving them of success and achievement.

But was it all true? I didn't dare even make a hint that I was rethinking my decision, but I was. My mom always used to tell me before she died that if people didn't love their children, they wouldn't have made them. And in my dreams, I could see a man that looked like me; he would talk to me, saying that I should trust the ones who 'rescued' me when help came, that those following the Titans were wrong.

Despite these only being dreams, I couldn't help but have a little faith that my doubts about Kronos' were right and that the Gods really did care.

On the night of the three week anniversary of Luke bringing me onto the Princess Andromeda, I was awoken to the sounds of an explosion. Dominique, Sarah (daughter of Hecate), and Lauren (unclaimed) jumped out of their beds in the tiny room we'd been sharing. Immediately, they all grabbed their swords and ran out of the room and into the hall.

I hesitated for a minute. Just this night, I had the same dream again with the man reassuring me that this was help, and not something I should fight against. I was frightened that I could be killed if it wasn't help or that the dream was just that…a dream.

With resolution, I didn't grab the sword that Luke gave me to fight. I slowly got out of bed and moved out of the room; the demigods that I've come to known were fighting against other teenagers in full Greek armor that I guessed were other demigods.

The strange women with serpent tails (that Luke taught me were correctly called dracaenae) were also fighting other teenagers with fierceness. There weren't many invading demigods, but it was enough to create quite the scare for the followers of Kronos and the Titans.

I caught a glimpse of Luke running with Ethan and the Titan Prometheus (his basic 'council') running upstairs to the top deck. One thing that had been made clear when I accepted to pledge myself to Kronos was that Luke must stay out of harms way if possible. Apparently, his physical safety was a big deal.

Dominique was a few feet in front of me and battling a boy with black hair; he easily took her down and caught my eye. Then, he looked over my shoulder and nodded. As I turned to see what he was looking out, an arrow caught my shoulder. I cried out in pain and fell to the floor.

Immediately, the black haired boy yelled out to retreat and grabbed me, slumping me over his shoulders. He moved to the railing and jumped over. We plummeted into the ocean. As the black water engulfed us, I passed out.

* * *

Woah, woah! Violet's a demigod?!? Who would've guessed!?!

Any thoughts on who you think is her father?

And high five to those who seem to like my story. I don't want to be a bother, though, but I'd really appreciate some reviews just to see what you guys do like and what you don't like.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I'm thinking that this story takes place between The Battle of The Labyrinth and the Last Olympian.

THANKS! XxSamacoyxX


	6. Chapter 6: Yet Another Strange Place

This time when I woke up, I felt safe. I've never really had this feeling before, except when I was a little kid and with my mom. But somehow, I knew that wherever I was, I would be okay.

I didn't open my eyes right away, though. Straining my ears, I could hear people talking in low voices more than just a couple feet away from me. Towards my left, someone was coughing violently.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. The first I saw was Grover staring back at me intently. He hadn't seemed to change in the weeks that I haven't seen him. Instead of wearing his ratty hoodie, however, Grover was wearing an orange tee shirt that said Camp Half-Blood. 

"Violet! You're awake!" Grover smiled widely at me, as if I hadn't ditched him and pledged myself to Kronos. With Grover's outburst, a man in a wheelchair came rolling over; his name was Chiron and he was really a centaur, Luke taught me.

"Hello Violet. How are you feeling?" 

I didn't answer the man, instead, I sat up and got off the bed. Grover's eyes were wide as I stood, but I didn't care if I was supposed to stay in bed or something. Looking down, I realized that I was once again in different clothes; this time, I was wearing a white tank top and jean capris.

Looking around, I noticed I seemed to be in some kind of infirmary. There were teenagers singing and giving medication to other kids that seemed to be very hurt; I made a mental note that these were the children of Apollo, god of Medicine and Music. Very slowly, I turned to face Chiron and Grover again.

"I thank you for organizing my rescue, Chiron." 

The man's eyes went wide. "How do you know my name, Violet?"

"Luke taught me all the names that I should know. You are Chiron, centaur and teacher of heroes. Your father is Kronos and your mother is Philyra; you are the half brother of Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. You help train the demigods here at Camp Half-Blood."

After that breath, I continued, "And you, Grover Underwood, are a satyr who once protected Luke and brought him to Camp unintentionally when you were supposed to be protecting Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, who became a pine tree, was brought back to life and is now a Hunter of Artemis."

Chiron and Grover sat with their eyes wide with surprise, but Chiron quickly recovered. "I see Luke taught you everything we generally would…but he also taught you wrong, Violet. I bet he taught you that the Gods are evil and the Titans are good."

I nodded calmly, "Yes, yes he did. All of the demigods aboard the Princess Andromeda did as well. But I do know better than to just believe those who kidnap me. They taught me a lot and how to fight, but I did not completely trust them."

Grover smiled slightly, but that quickly faded, "But we kidnapped you. Do you trust us?"

"How could you have kidnapped me when I willingly went with? I had dreams that told me to trust the help that was coming and that Luke was wrong about the Gods. If I didn't trust you, I would've fought against the invaders."

Chiron nodded wisely, but Grover just looked confused, "But you ran away from me when the train stopped! By the time that help came from Camp, you were already long gone and with the enemy!"

I blushed slightly, embarrassed that I just took off from Grover, especially now that I know the truth. "I'm really sorry about that Grover, but that was before I knew what was going on. I was scared and hurt, so I did what I thought was right at the time. I'm terribly sorry I created a mess for you, but that's in the past now."

Slowly, Grover's frown disappeared and he nodded. Chiron grinned and clapped his hands together, "Now, shall we introduce you to those who kidnapped you?"

* * *

The camp was a much larger playground than the Princess Andromeda. There were twelve large cabins in the shape of a U that represented the Twelve Olympian Gods; there was a stable for the Pegasus, a rock wall that spewed lava for an extra challenge and a large workshop where the sons Hephaestus were forging swords and shields. But Chiron, Grover and I were heading to an arena where a couple dozen kids were practicing fighting with one another.

Among them, I immediately noticed my captor, the boy with black hair. Looking at him now, I noticed he had a streak of grey in his hair and placid, sea green eyes. This is only my second time ever seeing him, yet I knew who he was: Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon and the probable child of the Great Prophecy. Luke acted like he hated Percy when he'd spoken of him, but I could tell that he at least respected the boy.

Everyone stopped fighting as we came near and turned to watch us. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see teenagers pointing at me and whispering to one another. The girl that Percy had been fighting, a blonde with grey eyes known as Annabeth Chase, was looking very wary.

"Percy," Chiron called in a booming voice and walking now as a Centaur, "I'd like to formally introduce you to Violet Carlisle, the girl you took liberty of kidnapping." Chiron smiled as I walked past him and straight up to Percy.

Up close, he was extraordinarily cute. He was taller than most boys his age, but I was taller than most girls; Percy and I could almost see straight into one another's eyes. 

"Thank you, Perseus Jackson, for rescuing me from the Princess Andromeda," I said sincerely. He smiled kind-heartedly and replied, "You're welcome."

Percy turned on his heel and started fighting a teenage boy near him; slowly, the rest started going back to practicing. The only one who didn't was Annabeth. She watched me the entire way as Chiron, Grover and I left the arena and headed towards the Cabins. I had a feeling that Annabeth didn't trust me as easily as Percy.

* * *

I stayed in the Hermes cabin. We didn't know who my father was and knowing that it wasn't a woman who was my Godly parent didn't exactly narrow down the list a whole lot. A lot of campers liked to guess which God was my parent and took bets, but I just mainly ignored them.

The cabin was the most worn, probably due to that almost every camper comes through here at least once. Only those who were claimed at birth or as small children, like the children of Athena, rarely came in to the cabin. It was packed to the fullest, most of us sleeping on the floor. I didn't mind sleeping on the floor though, it was a lot more comfortable when I'd sleep on cardboard in an alley back in Chicago.

As soon as I became comfortable with my new surroundings, Beckendorf of the Hephaestus cabin fashioned me a new sword and shield; the second I had the new equipment, I went down to the arena to train. Percy offered to be my training buddy for a while, as everyone else wanted to watch what I could do before they went into fight me. 

Percy joked that he'd go easy on me, as I was a "newbie," but he didn't seem to expect that I'd be taught how to fight while I was aboard the Princess Andromeda. At the start, he went in for an easy attack, but just like Luke, he quickly realized that I wasn't someone who could be taken down with an easy strike. Soon enough, Percy was giving all he had in defending himself against my blows that would have easily knocked down someone else if they didn't have his skill.

But Percy was taught by Luke and I knew Luke's tricks from training with him. As Percy turned right to sidestep me, time seemed to slow down. All of a sudden, I could plainly see his attack before he even did it. As time came back to normal pace, I quickly counterattacked with the same trick.

Percy was on the ground, his sword a few feet away and my own blade at his throat. The crowd that had gathered to watch was silent with shock and Percy looked up at me, breathing heavily. 

I removed my foot from his chest and held my sword away from him. Sticking my hand out, I helped Percy back onto his feet. He seemed over his shock and grinned, "That was awesome! How'd you learn to fight like that?"

Quietly, I replied, "Luke."

Percy's grin faded and he nodded grudgingly as he went to pick up his sword. As he turned back around, the smile was once again on his face, "You know, if you weren't so nice, I'd think that you were a daughter of Ares."

Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, was standing with her siblings and snorted in anger, "And if you weren't so retarded Percy, I'd think you were cool." Everyone except the Ares cabin rolled their eyes, sick of the Clarisse-Percy feud, although I could see that they seemed to care about one another despite always fighting.

But what Percy said kind of hurt my feelings. I really wanted to know who my father was and it seemed a little insensitive to say that. Feeling myself get upset, I said that I needed to use the rest room and stormed away from the arena.

I detoured from the bathrooms and headed down towards the lake, where I knew was empty except for the naiads. Upon meeting the sand, I sat down so my toes would barely be in the water. I put my sword and shield down next to me and tried to repress tears that were threatening to fall.

It seemed stupid, to cry over this, but I really wanted to know. I wasn't about to just go back over to Kronos' side over this, but I just needed to know who I was going to be fighting for. When the final battle against Kronos' army came, I could die from trying to protect my father; I needed to know who I was going to die for.

"You know, I personally think you're a child of the Big Three."

I snapped head to the left; Annabeth was walking calmly towards me, having broken from the crowd that watched Percy and I fight.

"What? Why would you assume that?"

She sat down next to me and put her feet in the water. "Well, Luke wouldn't have gone through so much trouble in getting you to join Kronos' army if you weren't special. They don't seek out demigods, demigods go to them." Annabeth looked at me expectantly, like I was supposed to know this already.

"I can't be a child of the Big Three."

"Why not? You seem powerful enough to be."

"Wouldn't I have shown the powers of it by now? Like Percy with his abilities or how I was told that Thalia was spouting lightning when she was just a kid. "

Annabeth frowned, as if she hadn't thought of that before, "Yeah, but…why would they actually track you down, kidnap you and try to convince you to join them if you weren't important? If you were just another demigod, they wouldn't have bothered picking you up."


	7. Chapter 7: My Father Finally Claims Me

After talking with Annabeth, I didn't really feel comfortable talking to Percy. I hadn't even come to the conclusion that I could be a child of the Big Three, but now I constantly thought of it. What if I was Percy's sister, or Thalia's sister or Nico's sister? I don't think I'd be able to handle the attention and trauma that came from being a Big Three's child and I definitely didn't want to be the child of the Great Prophecy.

It was hard to avoid Percy. I didn't really want to, but it was the only logical thing I could think of doing. Percy, however, wasn't very easy to avoid. Firstly, the camp was only so big. Secondly, he seemed to always know where I was.

A lot of times, I thought I was being sneaky because I'd never go to the same activity as he was, but he quickly caught on. He changed his schedule so he'd "accidentally" run into me. Percy kept trying to find out what was wrong with me and why I was avoiding him, but I could never really bring myself to say what Annabeth told me.

* * *

Clarisse La Rue didn't like me very much. Grover insisted that Clarisse doesn't like anyone, not even her siblings, but Percy said that she just hated because I was a better fighter and better looking. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I never really got close enough to her to find out.

A few weeks after I started camp, I was down in the arena practicing sword fighting; a couple of campers from Hephaestus and Apollo were taking me on when Clarisse came down and tried challenging. I got lucky that day because Chiron blew the conch horn, so I was able to get out of the arena before Clarisse actually attacked.

But I knew I wasn't going to be able to avoid her forever.

* * *

There was a storm developing outside of the camp's barriers that day, but it was as beautiful as ever inside the actual camp. That morning, I woke up, rolled up my sleeping bag and left the Hermes cabin to go down to the arena and practice before breakfast.

I knew that Percy, Annabeth and a lot of other campers were already down there, so I hurried to find a good match before they were all partnered up. As I reached the arena, I saw with agony that Clarisse was the only one available; no one ever wanted to fight her.

Clarisse turned away from watching her siblings fight with a look of anger on her face and noticed me; her frown turned into a deadly grin. Immediately, she marched straight up to me. My heart pounded harder and faster with each step.

"Well what do we have here? Does Miss Perfect not have a partner?"

Clarisse started calling 'Miss Perfect' as I went to each activity in camp and seemed to do fairly well in each category. This made narrowing down my father harder, though, as every child of a God had a certain specialty. Apollo kids did well in archery, but not good in foot racing and only decently in sword fighting; the Ares kids sucked at forging, but excellent fighters; the Athena kids couldn't do archery to save their lives, but excelled with knives, and so on.

But I seemed good at everything.

"Yes, Clarisse, I don't have a partner. Would you like to be mine?" I tried to always stay polite as possible; she seemed to go away faster than when I was nasty.

She frowned. "Bring it on."

We lined up into position, shields out and swords drawn. I sincerely hope that Ares is not my father, because Clarisse and I seem to have a hatred of one another; if he is my father, he'll have a serious case of sibling rivalry on his hands that will probably end one day in death.

We stood silently and still for a moment, contemplating one another. Then, without warning, Clarisse attacked with a high-pitched yell. Her sword was high in the air and would have chopped off my arm if I hadn't thrown my shield in the air; she was much taller than me and more muscular, so she definitely had that advantage over me.

Clarisse jumped to the left and tried to do a side-strike, but I met her sword with my own. With each move, she attacked with more and more force, but I kept deflecting her. In just a few strikes, I noticed that it seemed as if the whole camp had gathered to watch us fight.

Then again, this was a rare sight; someone who could keep up with Clarisse. She was as fast as lightning and had amazing reflexes. Apparently, the only one who could ever beat her single-handed was Luke.

But I soon notice that I had the upper hand. Time seemed to slow down once again and I could clearly see Clarisse's next attack. It was a good trick, a fake right then spinning seemingly to attack with your sword, but striking your enemy in the face with your shield. Clarisse was big, scary and a great fighter, but her strategy was easy to figure out.

Clarisse didn't bother to make sure that her plan was perfect. In fact, it seemed like her plan was just to take someone down as fast as possible and just get done with the job. Like all of the skilled fighters I've gone against, it was easy to see just how their minds seemed to work.

I took a deep breath, now knowing exactly how to properly counterattack and time went back to normal. Clarisse grimaced and turned on the spot, aiming her sword for my legs and threw her shield forward. The second she did, I jumped out of her way, did a tumble and jumped up, sticking my shield out and hit her in the face.

Clarisse stumbled back with shock. She took a moment to gather herself and took on a look of pure anger. Clarisse ran forward and raised her sword, aiming for my throat. As she got near, I raised my shield to protect myself. Within just a foot of me, I noticed Clarisse's eyes divert upward. After taking a double take, Clarisse stopped in front of me and dropped her sword to her side.

Behind her, the campers that gathered to watch our fight stop shouting for their hopes of who would win the fight and looked above me with awe. Clarisse moved her attention away from a spot above me and looked directly into my face.

"Huh. I wouldn't have guessed he was your father."

Confused, I looked directly up to see a floating black spear with what looked like a sandbag inside floating above my head. I watched it slowly fade into grey then disappear.

I frowned and looked back at Clarisse who was smirking.

"Morpheus, God of Dreams. That's not very impressive, Violet, now is it?"

"What are you talking about?"

Clarisse snorted and rolled her eyes, walking away and laughing. She moved towards her siblings, expecting them to follow her, but they just stood silently and watched me. A couple of other campers, though, were muttering to themselves.

"What are you talking about," I shouted after Clarisse, but she either didn't hear me or she didn't care.

"Your father is Morpheus, the god of Dreams." I looked right and saw Percy, Grover, Annabeth and Chiron standing near.

Annabeth shook her head, looking disappointed, "I was sure that she was a child of the Big Three. But no, it's just a minor God."

Percy rolled his eyes at Annabeth and scrunched up his face, "You act like he's not important. If he didn't exist, then there would be no need for his brothers and we wouldn't be able to dream. I think it's wicked. No wonder I've been having good dreams lately."

My father is Morpheus?

* * *

*Note from author*

So…her dad is Morpheus. I bet most people were thinking it'd be one of the "more important gods," but I like to spice things up a bit. I like Morpheus cause he makes us dream and he can impersonate anybody! That's why time "slows down" and Violet can see the way her enemy can fight…if that makes sense. I hope it does or I just sound like an idiot.

BTW-sorry this chapter is short. I'll try and make the next one longer!


	8. Chapter 8: I Get A Quest

Word got around quickly that I was claimed. My father is Morpheus, God of Dreams. While he doesn't decide what we dream about, he makes it possible. He can take on the form of anyone right down to their voice, what they say, and how they think. Morpheus enters dreams and changes what people see in order to help change an order of events that will occur.

I still had to stay in the Hermes cabin, though. My father wasn't important enough to have his own cabin at camp. No one said anything bad about who my father is, excluding the Ares cabin, but I could tell from a few people's faces that they were disappointed; apparently, a lot of people betted that I was a child of the Big Three.

The only one who insisted that having a minor God as a parent wasn't bad was Percy. We trained together everyday and he'd reassure me that Morpheus was cool to have as a parent, that dreams were indeed important. I was glad that Percy was being so nice about it…he was the only one.

* * *

My sword struck Percy's. With a grunt, he thrust Riptide at my legs; I jumped and swung my sword, aiming for his chest. Using his shield, Percy blocked my blow and used the same counterattack. His blade was an inch away from my armor. I quickly ducked and smashed my shield into his legs.

Percy fell over like a lump from surprise and force. I jabbed my sword down to nearly reach his neck as Percy rolled over onto his back, eyes wide. I couldn't help but let my glee be shown with a grin.

"I win Percy…again."

Percy shook his head, "I feel like I'm slacking or something."

For some reason, I was extremely good at sword fighting. I wasn't very good at knife fighting like Annabeth seemed to master, but I could take on almost anything as long as I had a sword in my hand. I was decent at everything here at camp, but fighting was just my thing.

I stuck my hand out and helped Percy off the ground. Upon standing, Percy dusted off his armor and picked his shield and sword back up.

"You know, Violet, if you weren't already claimed, I'd have changed my mind and decided you were a daughter of Ares." I felt my face grow hot and flushed over Percy's comment.

A long time ago, I decided I never wanted to be a daughter of Ares and was at least a little bit thrilled that I wasn't Clarisse's sister when my father claimed me. The children of Ares are good fighters, but cruel and have twisted loyalties. Who cares how good you are at fighting if you're going to misuse it?

Percy quickly caught on that I didn't like his remark and backed up a little, "I'm sorry Violet, didn't mean to make you mad." Slowly, I became calm again.

"It's alright, Percy…I just really dislike Clarisse."

Percy shrugged, "She's alright. Clarisse has a lot of pride and no patience, that's all."

I nodded and we stood silently for a few moments before the conch horn blew and we headed down towards dinner. We walked side by side and watched cabins line up together. I watched as the Hermes cabin all lined up by seniority. I was supposed to join them and be the last in line, but I didn't feel like eating today.

"Hey Percy, why don't you go on without me. I'm not really hungry today."

Percy nodded oddly as I moved away from the dining area and started heading over to the beach. As I reached the secluded beach, I took my shoes off and sat down, letting my feet dig into the soft sand. I looked over out at the lake, small ripples of waves shuddered over the calm water. Fish jumped out of the water every so often.

"What's on your mind, Violet?"

I jumped. Percy had come up right behind me without a noise and sat down, grinning at my reaction.

"You're such a jerk, Jackson."

"It's not my fault your hearing is incredibly unreliable."

I smiled and tucked a piece of rouge hair behind my ear. Percy picked some sand up in his hand and clasped his hand into a fist. The sand dropped from his hand onto the ground like a sand

When Percy was done, he looked over at me. "Have you tried your powers yet?" I frowned and looked back confused. He went hurried on, explaining, "You know…like how I can control water. Have you tried your abilities?"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "I don't even know if I have powers, Percy. If I do, they'd probably have to be used when I'm sleeping, so I wouldn't know." He nodded, but countered that statement.

"You won't know until you try. Every child of a god has special abilities, Violet."

I nodded in agreement, but still felt that I wouldn't have any cool abilities like Percy or his friend, Thalia. I'll probably ended up with a dumb ability like Dionysus' kids and be stuck with only being able to make juice.

"Now…are you hungry, Violet, cause I am."

* * *

Percy and I headed back to the mess hall where everyone was stuffing their faces. A couple campers looked up as we approached with smirks on their faces; Annabeth, however, looked like she wanted to murder me. I knew she and Percy had a thing for one another and I made a mental note to let her know that I didn't like Percy that way.

Percy was cute and really nice, but at best, he was like a brother.

We went to split up and go to our respective tables when Annabeth gasped from something behind us. Percy and I whipped around, reaching for our swords, but I quickly realized that there was nothing that was going to harm us.

I never went into the Big House and sought her out, but I knew precisely what was walking towards us. The mummy wore a weathered, tie die dress and had mist pouring from its mouth. At first, I thought it was moving towards Percy, but I quickly realized that it was coming for me when she stopped just a foot in front of me.

Its horrible voice seemed to becoming from inside my head, "Approach, Seeker, and ask."

I stood shocked for a moment until Percy nudged me. "You obviously have been wondering something lately, now ask!"

I racked my brain for what the Oracle could possibly help me with. I wanted to know what I was so important to Luke and Kronos, but I didn't dare ask. So I said something stupid like, "I have no idea so why don't you just tell me."

The mist formed into an almost video of Luke and I battling on the Princess Andromeda. All around us, demigods were fighting; I got the upper hand and knocked Luke's sword away. I realized this was a memory of when I made a temporary alliance with Kronos. The Oracle spoke:

_Six shall go east to the Valley of Death,_

_In all seriousness, one shall be lost in drought,_

_The enemy shall strand on desertion,_

_One with pain most above shall overcome,_

_Meet thy brother in death,_

_Ancient monsters separate friends and injure the best,_

_And come back full circle again._

The Oracle ended her prophecy and the mist went back into her open mouth. The Oracle turned on her heel and walked back to the Big House.

* * *

*Author's Note*

Hey…don't mean to be a pain, but I'd appreciate some reviews…Please? J


	9. Chapter 9: Clarisse Decides For Me

Everyone immediately started talking as soon as the prophecy was spoken. Percy and I turned to one another, stunned. I haven't been here for a long time, but I knew that the Oracle coming down from the attic was a pretty big deal. The Oracle once came down to give deceased Hunter Zoë Nightshade a prophecy a few years ago, but that was the only time that I knew of.

Chiron stomped his hoof and quieted the chatting campers. They all turned and crammed their necks to look at him. Chiron cleared his throat and began, "I know we're all pretty excited right now, but now it's time for us to being our game of Capture The Flag. The leading teams are Athena and Ares." The campers didn't look excited to stop talking about the prophecy, but they immediately started grouping together. We'd decided last week who would be on who's side, so it wouldn't be a big deal.

As her siblings joined their temporary allies, Annabeth ran over to us, eyes wide. "No way, you get a quest!" For a second, I thought she was mad at me for getting a quest when she didn't, but her eyes were gleaming with excitement. "And you get to bring five people along, can I come?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but we didn't have time to talk. A senior counselor from the Demeter cabin was yelling at us to get our armor on and get ready. The three of us moved over to the blue side.

Athena always makes an alliance with Hermes when it comes to Capture the Flag, bringing in the most campers. This time, Poseidon was joining our team, although it didn't make a gigantic difference, as there's only one of Percy. Ares made an alliance with Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Apollo, Demeter and Dionysus.

The children of Aphrodite wouldn't be hard to take out, as they're usually too afraid to go into a fight. If anything, they would probably just slow you down.

There were only a couple of boys in the Hephaestus cabin, but they were big and scary, just like the Ares cabin. They weren't nearly as aggressive as Clarisse or her siblings, but they were usually flanking the one who would be deemed the "flag capturer," which meant it would be difficult to take them out.

Apollo was definitely the biggest advantage of the entire group. The dozen of them would mostly likely be positioned in trees to shoot at oncoming enemies; as long as we keep our eyes open, I don't see why we shouldn't be able to get past them.

Demeter and Dionysus' kids weren't threats. The most that they could do is grow plants and know the woods a little better, but we definitely had more force and they didn't like to fight that much.

I finished strapping on my armor, ignoring Annabeth because I could tell she wanted to talk about the prophecy. I grabbed my shield and sword and waited for Chiron's call.

He walked over calmly to look at all of us, ready to begin. "You all know the rules; the creek is the boundary. I'll be the field medic, although you all know that there is no intentional maiming. All magic items are allowed. Alright, you may now begin."

* * *

I walked just behind Annabeth, the declared leader of our team. Percy was on her other side, rubbing a spot off his shield. The Stoll brothers walked right behind me, whispering to themselves about some prank. I had a feeling that they were going to pull a prank on me, but I would easily just get them back when it came to sword training; I would take them down in a heartbeat.

We stopped when we got to Zeus' fist. Annabeth rolled out her plans and started ordering us to our positions. A small and quick unclaimed girl by the name of Isabelle would be the flag capturer and I'd be one of her flanks along with Chris Rodriguez, Clarisse's boyfriend, who was fast and good with a sword.

While most of the team was going to defend our flag, the Stoll brothers would lead groups into the enemy territory to lead the confuse the defenders. We would have three different groups of three going for the flag; hopefully, the defenders of the red team would go after Travis and Connor's groups.

We all agreed to our positions and waited for the conch shell call. After a few minutes of waiting, the call could be heard in the distance, signaling the start of the game. Immediately, the fake groups dispersed; Isabelle, Chris and I headed right.

Chris wasn't very graceful like his brothers, so there was a lot of stumbling in the woods. Isabelle and I managed to stay quiet and move fluidly, but Chris kept tripping. For a second, I wondered why we chose him to cover up the flanks; if we were running across uneven ground to capture the flag, he wouldn't be a whole lot of help, but then I remembered that he was the biggest person on our team.

I handed Isabelle my sword and shield; she handed me a bow. Isabelle didn't wasn't very good when it came to weapons, but we decided she'd carry a bow so I could get Apollo campers out of trees before they got us. I looked up, carefully scanning trees.

My eyes quickly adjusted to the dark and I noticed several Apollo campers hidden in the trees, bows at the ready. Looking further along, I saw the flag of Ares guarded by Clarisse and her dangerous looking brothers. I turned around quickly to motion Isabelle and Chris' attention to the flag. They nodded once with understanding.

I cocked the bow and aimed for the closest archer, who I recognized as Kayla. "Sorry Kayla," I whispered under my breath and released the bow. It soared straight over small trees and reached its target. A net jumped from the arrow and tied itself around Kayla, who dropped from the branch she was on is surprise.

An Ares camper ran over to her to see what was going on, but Will Solace and Michael Yew dropped from the trees, trapped in a net just like their sister. Isabelle prodded my back, a form of good shot with my getting the two others. The Ares camper, turned his head in our direction, but I quickly shot an arrow at him, capturing him as well.

Quickly, the three of us ran forward, this small portion of enemy territory in the clear. As we reached the four in nets, I apologized. Kayla's hair was tangled up with the net and Michael had a cut on his cheek, as if he hit something when he fell from the tree. Will just shook his head though, "The children of the God who is an expect archer get beat by the child of the God of Dreams…yeah, that's logical."

I grinned and let Isabelle and Chris take the lead from here; I kept the bow cocked and continued to look around for more archers. Chris kept his sword at the ready as Isabelle peeked around a particularly large tree.

The enemy flag was in the center of a clearing. There were about six Ares campers guarding it and flexing their freakish muscles; three Apollo campers were in trees around the flag. Two Hephaestus boys were swinging swords, warming up. I made a mental note that the rest were all going for our flag, creating a super group.

Chris turned around to whisper, "Get the three archers in the trees."

I shook my head, "Only when needed. If I shoot from here, they'll know where we are. In case you haven't noticed, they out number us…especially in size."

He nodded reluctantly and looked left. I followed his gaze and saw the Stoll brothers and their respective groups on the other side of the clearing, motioning to us. Quickly I realized that they were going to run in and create a distraction so we could get the flag.

I nodded once to Travis. Half a second later, they all spewed into the clearing, yelling at the top of their lungs. The Ares campers and Hephaestus boys ran forward, immediately engaging into a battle with them; the archers had their bows cocked, aiming for stragglers. That's when I aimed and released my arrows.

The three archers dropped like flies, captured in the nets. I quickly traded Isabelle the bow for my sword and shield; Isabelle, Chris and I ran out from our hidden position, running for the unprotected flag. We squeezed in between two fighting groups and reached the flag. Isabelle pulled it from its spot and immediately started running away.

Chris pounded after Isabelle, sword at the ready to fend off an enemy; I yelled for our group to get out once Isabelle and Chris were hidden in the dark trees. Clarisse pushed Travis Stoll down onto the ground, his sword knocked away and turned her attention to me. "You! It was a trick," she screamed in anger.

I backed up and ran for dear life. Clarisse and her teammates were right behind me, running at full speed. Up ahead, I could see Isabelle and Chris just a few yards from the creek, our team screaming with glee and encouragement. Percy trained his eyes on my face and screamed, "Duck!"

I turned around quickly, but didn't have enough time to duck. Clarisse's shield met my face and I was thrown back. Pain exploded and I could feel something wet and warm dripping from my nose. I jumped up and got into a fighting stance.

Clarisse's face was contorted with anger and she ran at me with her electric spear pointing at my heart. I ran forward as well and we collided somewhere in the middle. I could hear explosive yells of joy from our side, letting me know that we won, but they quickly subsided as Clarisse and I engaged in a fight.

I had a feeling that this wasn't because we tricked her but actually because I beat her in a training session. No one beats Clarisse; it's like a rule.

I could hear Chiron galloping towards us and all the campers gathering around to watch. Chiron was yelling, "Stop this instant! The game has ended!" But this was much more than just a game to Clarisse.

I met every single one of Clarisse's strikes and threw in a few complex moves myself, but we were evenly matched in battle; we would just tire ourselves out by continuing. After a few minutes of fighting, I decided to just end it by losing; Clarisse hit me in the face with her shield and sent me sprawling onto the ground, feeling dazed.

Clarisse stood over me, panting. My vision was blurry, but I could make out her putting her sword away. "I would like for you to know Violet that I would very much like to go on your quest. It's been awhile since I've been on one so you're taking me." With that, Clarisse turned and started walking towards the cabins.

Everyone stopped watching Clarisse and looked at me. I cleared my throat and stood up; I could feel blood all over my face. "Well, Chiron. There's five people I want to come with me on my quest. Surprisingly, I want Clarisse."


	10. Chapter 10: Going Out On A Limb

Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, Clarisse La Rue, and Michael Yew were decided to accompany me on my quest. Everyone of them had some sort of talent to bring to the table and would benefit the entire group, so it seemed logical to me to have the five of them travel along.

Percy is an excellent sword fighter and would help us travel across water if need be. Annabeth is undoubtfully brilliant and cunning; she would guide us to our destination. Grover could sniff out monsters, which would most definitely be needed. Clarisse was strong and had brute force; she's be our bodyguard of sorts. Michael, as a son of Apollo, is an expert archer and good with medicine; if one of us were to be injured, he'd be helpful to have on hand.

The night before we left for the quest, my sleep was filled with many strange dreams. When I discovered who my father was, I realized that I should pay extra attention to my dreams; they would lead me to where I needed to be.

* * *

In one of my dreams, I was standing alone in a land with just sand. My mouth was dry and the sun was beating down on me. I heard shouts in the distance and realized it was Annabeth screaming for help; I started running after her. I ran hard and was sweating like crazy, but she just seemed to keep getting farther away. She was running towards the others, who seemed to be in a body of water and drowning.

I tried screaming at them to get their attention, but it didn't do any good. I broke down into tears and sat in the sand, giving up hope. As I sobbed, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around and came face to face with a mummy with an amulet that looked like a dung beetle. I reached for the amulet, but the mummy's eyes burned a bright red and grabbed my hand.

* * *

I woke with a start, drenched in sweat. My sleeping bag was thrashed all around me and I almost rolled on top of a girl who was sleeping near my spot on the floor of the Hermes cabin. It was near pitch black in the cabin and content snores from the campers let me know that all of those in the Hermes cabin were fast asleep.

I tried to go back to bed, but it was a fruitless attempt. After about an hour, I rolled up the sleeping bag and pulled on my shoes, heading out of the cabin and headed two cabins down to the Apollo cabin. I quietly opened the door and strained through the darkness to find Michael Yew amongst his siblings. After about a minute, my eyes landed on him. I moved forward and shook him slightly.

"Michael," I whispered, "Wake up."

He took a minute to wake up, but Michael finally came to and seemed very surprised to find me in his cabin. After all, people just didn't swap cabins.

"What are you doing here? And after curfew?"

"I had a dream and I know where we're heading. Now come on, get dressed. We have to wake Clarisse, Annabeth, Percy and Grover."

I left the cabin and waited outside so Michael could get dressed. After a few minutes, he came out dressed in jeans and a tee shirt. He went over to the Athena cabin to wake Annabeth and I volunteered to wake the sleeping demon that was Clarisse. I'd never been inside the Ares cabin and I wasn't looking forward to waking Clarisse; I had a feeling she wouldn't be happy to be woken.

I took a deep breath before opening the door to the Ares cabin. The blood red paint on the outside was also on the inside and the place was a pigsty. Clothes and weapons were strewn all over the place. Loud snores erupted all around me.

My eyes quickly found Clarisse sleeping in a cot in the corner. I moved silently over to her and bent down. Once over her, I gently shook her. "Clarisse…wake up. C'mon Clarisse…"

Clarisse woke quicker than Michael and she bolted up and snatched her sword that was next to her bed. She thrust it at my chest, but Clarisse quickly dropped it when she noticed it was only me.

"Well what in the Hades are you doing in here?"

"Michael and Annabeth are waiting for us, Clarisse. We have to go to the Big House and talk to Chiron."

She nodded and looked around for her shoes. Upon finding them, we left the Ares cabin and met up with Michael who was waiting outside of the Poseidon cabin. He immediately explained, "Annabeth's waking up Percy. She said that Grover's probably sleeping at the Big House."

I nodded and waited patiently for Annabeth to come out of the house with a stumbling and tired Percy. Once they reached us, we all set off for the Big House as a group.

* * *

Chiron and Grover were awake and talking together when we reached the Big House. Despite it being two in the morning, Chiron didn't seem surprised to see us up. He was in his human form and sitting in his wheelchair while Grover sat on a couch, eating a water bottle.

"I had a feeling you six might show up."

The others sat on the couch and chairs that were scattered around the room; I preferred to stand. When the others were comfy, everyone turned to look at me.

"I had a dream that we were in the desert. There was a mummy that had an amulet that matched the dung beetle, which the Ancient Egyptians viewed as good luck and health. I think we're supposed to go to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and take this amulet."

The others stared at me in silence. Annabeth slowly nodded, but Clarisse shook her head.

"Why in the world would we be sent to get an amulet? That doesn't make sense, Violet."

Chiron cleared his throat and frowned at Clarisse's words, "A demigod's dream is a powerful weapon. To be the daughter of the God of Dreams…well, that's not something to take lightly. If you believe this means something, Violet, follow it."

I nodded and looked at the group of five that volunteered to accompany me. They seemed wary about the unknown adventure that was ahead of us, but more tired than unwilling. I smiled. "Thank you for agreeing to come with me on the quest. I really appreciate this."

* * *

We set out just before everyone woke for the day. We all agreed that we didn't want to create a scene, so we left quickly and quietly. Although it'd be quicker if we flew to Egypt than to take a boat, it wasn't exactly safe for Percy to fly. He'd muttered something about getting shot out of the sky and ran off to get us a boat big enough for the six of us.

Percy guided us away from camp and onto the ocean when we set off. In no time, camp was unseen and we were completely surrounded by water. I felt really insecure about the direction we were heading in, concerned that we'd go in the wrong direction, but Percy reassured me that we were going straight to Africa.

We all fell asleep within an hour or two of being on the boat. Percy said that he'd know right away if we started drifting in the wrong direction, but I wasn't too comfortable with falling asleep…yet, I did.

I had more strange dreams. I was aboard the Princess Andromeda. Several demigods in Greek armor and dracaenae were at the railings, looking down into the ocean. Luke stood behind them, smirking. I pushed my way to the railing and looked down. Just a few yards away from the ship was a boat with six sleeping figures. Several of the demigods jumped into the water and swam to the tiny boat.

Dominique, a girl I befriended during my stay on the Princess Andromeda, came up right beside me and smiled bitterly. "You betrayed us, Violet. You swore an oath to Kronos and the Titan army…now you'll die like a traitor." Dominique pulled her knife into the air and made it come down with force.

I woke with a start and immediately punched Dominique's face. She fell back with surprise and dropped her knife into the water. Her surprised yell woke the others, who quickly noticed that a dozen demigods with knives were surrounding us. They all sprung into action.

Percy jumped into the water and pulled two demigods down with him. A few seconds later, they shot out of the water and onto the Princess Andromeda with a loud thud that could be heard, despite them having landed probably on the top deck.

Dominique composed herself and snatched up her knife, going into attack me. She grazed my cheek and pushed herself into the small boat. I snatched up my sword and sliced through the air, barely missing Dominique as she stood on the rickety boat. She laughed and lunged, forcing me to drop my sword and fall into the water.

Dominique pushed me underwater and took a grasp of my neck, cutting off my air supply. I thrashed against Dominique, but she was just much too strong for me to fight against. I could feel myself getting drowsy and my vision was slowly turning black.

But all of a sudden, I was powerful. The black faded and I grabbed Dominique and dragged her underwater with me. She gulped in surprise and immediately her lungs were filled with salt water. Dominique wildly fought against me, but I felt myself become angry very quickly and I punched her once. She stopped fighting and floated to the surface.

I swam up the few feet and took a deep breath as soon as I broke the surface. Dominique was lying on her back, passed out, but breathing from what I could see. I felt bad for hurting her, but as Clarisse would probably say, "Better her than us."

I whipped around to see how everyone was doing; they all pushed away the final demigods away from the boat and the Princess Andromeda was almost long gone, just beyond the horizon. Michael sighed with tiredness and looked over at me and yelped in surprise.

He whipped back around to look at Clarisse than turned his attention back to me. "Violet? How'd you do that?" I was confused and started swimming back to the boat, but I was all of a sudden tired again. He held out his hands and pulled me aboard. Once inside, I noticed that Annabeth was holding her wrist, which was purple and didn't look very good.

I sat up against the boat's 'wall' and laid my head back. Michael sat right down next to me. I looked at the floating demigods who were clearly breathing, but were abandoned by Luke and Kronos' army. I winced at Dominique's form and looked at my companions. "What do we do about them?"

Clarisse shrugged, "Let them figure that out themselves. They're the traitors and they tried to kill us. I'm not helping them."

Surprisingly, Annabeth, Grover and Percy agreed. Grover looked apologetically towards me, like he somehow knew that I used to be friends with Dominique. "I'm sorry, Violet, but they didn't have to join Kronos."

Percy immediately sped off back in the direction of where we were heading. As the boat jumped with each wave, Michael whispered to me, "How'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"For just a minute…you were Clarisse. I mean, looked just like her."

* * *

*Author's Note*

I felt like that chapter was a little rushed, but I feel like I'm on a roll with the whole update thing. Thank you so much for the reviews, I really appreciate getting them. When I don't, I feel like no one's reading them or they just don't like them.

And I just now realized that I messed up with Morpheus' symbol. It's not supposed to be a bag of sand (I just did that because he's the "sandman"); it's actually supposed to be a closed eye. Very sorry about that.

Oh, and trust me with this whole Ancient Egyptian thing. I know where I'm going with this…I think. It's not going to be an Egyptian Gods sort of deal, so don't start freaking out. So…yep.

XxSamacoyxX


	11. Chapter 11: Marooned

I fully realize that my father can imitate anyone from their appearance right down to what they say and how they say it. By simply studying a person for a few moments, he knows how they'll react to any given situation and the way they generally act. However, I can not believe that Michael's insisting that I have the same ability.

I don't know what happened when I was fighting Dominique in the water. I just felt stronger and angrier. Michael claimed that for a minute I literally took on the form of Clarisse and fought off Dominique, but I can't see how that's possible, especially since you think I'd realize it happening.

After the unsuccessful attack by Dominique and the demigods, we sped off towards Africa once again. The others struggled against sleep, afraid we'd get a surprise attack once again. Soon, however, we all started falling in and out of consciousness.

* * *

For the first time in my life, I had a dreamless sleep. I've always had extremely vivid dreams that warned me of the future, but this was different. And I was very concerned about it.

Being a daughter of Morpheus, I fully realized that my dreams are extremely important and in some cases, could be the fine line between life and death. To not be having dreams…well, that could mean a lot of things.

First and foremost, that could be a sign that I was going to die, and soon. Or worse yet, that one of my companions was going to die. We weren't all extremely close and couldn't be described as a close-nit group (except for Percy, Annabeth and Grover, of course), but I wouldn't like to see anything happen to any of them, even Clarisse.

* * *

I woke up slowly, taking in my surroundings. The rest of the group was awake and looking beyond the water. I squinted my eyes and sat up. Beyond us, there was an island coming into view. As we inched closer, I noticed that there were a lot of trees; something was probably hiding in them.

"Sail around the island, Percy," I called to Percy at the head of the boat. Clarisse turned around to glare at me.

"You're not calling the shots here, Violet," she sneered.

"This is my quest and I'll give the orders. Besides, there's probably something on that island."

We inched closer to the island, but Percy still wasn't budging to steer the boat around. "Percy, sail around," I repeated to him, incase he hadn't heard. Annabeth shook her head, "I think it'll be alright if we checked it out, Violet."

It didn't feel right, going straight to the island. I thought it was weird that Annabeth and Percy were so insistent that we go to the island, but I tried to ignore it. After all, Annabeth was a daughter of Athena and would know better to go to an unknown place if she didn't think it was safe.

Percy pushed the boat straight up onto the beach and we all climbed out and onto the sand. As my feet landed, there seemed to be a pulse through the air. Like a daydream, I could see Annabeth yelling and jumping from a large boulder. Clarisse was right behind him, sword swinging madly at something I couldn't see.

"You guys, I really don't think we should be here," I whispered to my group, but they ignored me. Annabeth looked into a bag that held our food.

"We've got enough food to last us until we get to Africa, but I think we should look around and see if we can find any fruit to bring with us," she announced. Michael nodded and pulled out his bow for precaution. He and Grover started towards the trees; I quickly ran after them, leaving Annabeth, Clarisse and Percy in a group.

Once inside the trees, Grover frowned. "This place doesn't seem right."

I rolled my eyes, "What do you think I was trying to tell you guys? We shouldn't just stop at random islands that we come across."

Michael snorted and cocked his bow in preparation. We slowly moved through the thick cluster of trees. There didn't seem to be any fruit, only large bugs that darted around quickly. A spider the size of my fist rushed by, making Grover jump in shock.

"Did you see the size of that thing?!" I smirked to myself, imagining what Annabeth's response to the spider would be if she came across it. Annabeth was deathly afraid of spiders, as were all of her siblings. Apparently, the fear stemmed from her mother's feud with Arachne. My smile quickly faded, though, when I saw something slither in the corner of my eye.

I turned quickly, but nothing was in sight. "Did you guys see that?'

I looked back at Michael and Grover questioningly; Michael frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"I could have sworn that I saw something slither pass."

Grover's eyes widened in fear. "When you say slither…do you mean like a snake?"

I nodded slowly and both boys looked around madly, searching. "How big do you think it was?"

"I don't know! Bigger than us!"

Almost on cue, there was a hiss that sounded like it was coming from right behind me. Michael and Grover slowly turned around and faced me. They looked beyond me, eyes filled with terror. Michael's grip on his cocked bow shook trembled.

I didn't want to look at what was behind me. Odds are, I already knew what it was. I racked in my head through the Ancient Greek history, looking for something that would explain what was going on. I knew in my head that we weren't just going to be facing some average snake. Average snakes weren't taller than you.

The only thing I could come up with was Python, a large and hideous monster that Hera sent after Apollo and Artemis when they were infants so they couldn't reach Olympus. Apollo defeated the Python when he was stronger and older, but just like other monsters, I assume the Python was reincarnated.

I made eye contact with Michael and Grover; they didn't need to nod or speak for me to know that they got my message: run now and fast or you die.

We sprinted at the same time. Running with all we had, I felt like we were going pretty fast, but in all honesty, the snake was just as fast and Michael was a slow runner, with his short legs and all. I glanced behind me as we ran and came face to face with a snake with huge, black eyes that reflected my terror filled face.

All of a sudden, the Python lunged. I jumped to the side and rolled; the snake slithered by, going after Michael and Grover. "Get higher up! Get into the trees," I yelled after them.

I didn't have time to make sure they heard me because all of a sudden, the Python was coming back to me. As it slithered near, I pulled out my sword. Besides the minotaur I fought back in Chicago, this was my first real monster. The python lunged and I swung with all my might.

The sword barely missed its head and all it did was make the Python angry. It swung around and whipped me with its body. I went flying through the air and fell against a bed of rocks twenty feet away. My sword was about 15 feet away from me; it would be no help right now.

I tried to stand as the Python slithered nearer to me, but my leg buckled beneath me. Looking down, I noticed there was blood staining my jeans. The Python was just 10 feet away from me; I forced myself to stand. The pain was sickening, but I had more important things to deal with right now. Despite my leg screaming in protest, I ran for my sword. The Python stuck me again, sending me crashing into a tree.

"Hey!" The Python turned its attention away from me and looked left. Standing on the ready was Annabeth, Percy and Clarisse. Clarisse had her electric spear out and was running at the Python without fear. The Python slithered away from me and immediately headed for Clarisse. Annabeth ran past it and to me, "Are you alright?"

She helped me to my feet and I grabbed my sword, immediately ready to help Clarisse. She struck the Python with her spear, but it seemed to just deflect it. It turned and threw her across the small clearing we were in, too. Percy and I ran forward at the same time, swords high in the air.

All of a sudden, arrows shot down at the creature, but they seemed to bounce off. Michael and Grover came running into view, Michael shooting off a volley of arrows. The Python became very angry and turned its attention at me. Perhaps it knew I was hurt and would be the easiest target.

It lunged at me, mouth wide open to bite me. Just before it hit my body, I threw my sword forward, aiming for its mouth. I closed my eyes as the Python landed on top of me. There was silence for a minute.

The weight was painful. It was hard to describe, though, because I never felt anything quite that heavy. Slowly, I opened my eyes. My sword was stuck in the Python's mouth and the creature was clearly dead.

"Way to go, Violet," Clarisse grinned. She and Percy pushed the dead snake off of me; Annabeth helped me stand. I pulled my sword from the Python's mouth and started walking back towards the boat.

* * *

Once back in the boat, I rolled up my jeans. On my left leg was a long, blood cut that went from my knee to nearly my ankle. Michael tried cleaning the cut for me, but his medicines didn't seem to be helping me very much; the most he could do was bandage it. Besides, Annabeth's bruised wrist was a bigger problem, it would be hard for her to fight if it was needed.

Percy slowly backed the boat away from the beach and we all watched the island slowly disappear as we went back into the middle of the ocean. Michael shook his head.

"Let's make a rule," he said.

We all turned our attention to him. He grimaced, "How about we don't just stop at random islands anymore."

We all muttered in agreement.

* * *

*Author's Note*

Thank you for reading! Reviews would be appreciated! : )

XxSamacoyxX


	12. Chapter 12: Africa

The boat continued to wander aimlessly around the Atlantic Ocean. Percy reassured us that we were heading to Africa, but everything just seemed to blur of clear water and blue skies. The cut on my leg kept getting worse. It was no longer bleeding, but it was definitely infected. It hurt-a lot.

The others were worried about it, but I tried to play it off like it wasn't that big of a deal. Michael insisted that when we reached Africa he would go to a market to find herbs to help it, but he didn't sound reassured about that. After all, we didn't even have a clue if we'd reach society before we headed for the Valley of the Kings.

Besides, Annabeth's injured wrist was worse. It hurt her to move it, as it was all bruised up. I'm not sure how she got it in the attack of the demigods from the Princess Andromeda, but I suspect she fell on it wrong or something. Michael kept stressing over how to make it so it'd be less painful for her to fight. After all, we don't know if we're going to come across monsters on our way to Egypt.

* * *

We spent five days in the boat. Seeing as we're traveling across the Atlantic Ocean and we're in just a little wooden boat, that's pretty good timing. But we were all slowly getting on each others' nerves. We had practically no personal space and you couldn't even lay down. Sleeping was a pain; we had to sit up against the sides of the boat and ignore the rocking. One of us always had to stay awake to make sure we didn't come across the Princess Andromeda again.

Food was running low. We'd have enough for everyone to last until we reached Africa, but we didn't think Clarisse would eat so much. She tried not to. I could tell she felt bad, but she was the biggest of us and had a fast metabolism. Thankfully, Michael didn't usually eat a ton of food, so we could give some of his portions to Clarisse.

But we didn't have to worry for too long. Just as I was about to throw Michael out of the boat because of his stupid poetry that he would recite every five minutes, Annabeth shouted that there was land ahead. On the terrific side, it didn't look like an island.

We loaded up to a beach and I dropped to my knees; beside me, Clarisse fell. "Finally," she muttered, "Land." I grinned and sat down. Percy and Michael pulled the boat onto the sand to keep it from floating away. Grover sniffed the air cautiously, trying to sniff out monsters and Annabeth checked her map.

The sun was setting, casting a purple-pinkish hue in the sky. It looked so pretty, I didn't want night to come. But I knew we wouldn't be able to just sit here; we had a lot of ground to cover and only so much time to get done with this quest. We'd been gone for probably a week or so now, so we should probably get speeding along.

Percy and Michael finished moving the boat and headed over to Annabeth. "Do you know where we are," Percy asked.

"Yeah…I believe we're in Morocco. We should find a town so we can at least know precisely where we are because I can't be certain."

After groaning from Clarisse and I, we grabbed out backpacks and headed up a small hill. My leg was killing me, but I tried to not let it show that I was struggling. Upon reaching the top of the hill, we were immediately we were greeted with the sight of a city. Just across the street was a bus stop with a bus loading passengers. We ran across the street.

We lined up behind two dark haired ladies, who bordered the bus and gave some coins to the bus driver. The six of us nervously glanced at one another, silently trying to determine who was going to bravely approach bus driver and try to ask if we can get a ride, despite the fact that we won't carry their currency.

The bus driver raised his eyebrows at us and Clarisse finally went up the couple of steps to approach him. "Uhm…hi. Do you speak English?" The bus driver nodded, "Some, yes," he said in a very thick accent.

"Okay, where are we?"

"Rabat," he answered.

I glanced nervously at Annabeth, who looked relieved, "Okay, we are in Morocco then."

"Where is the bus heading?"

The man looked confused for a second, like he was trying to piece together what she asked, but then he quickly recovered, "City center. You need ride?"

Clarisse nodded, "Yes, but we only have American money." As if for proof, Clarisse pulled out a couple of dollar. The man looked at the money in her hand for a second, contemplating.

"It's ok, I accept."

With relief, we all jumped onto the bus and quickly found seats. People on the bus were eyeing us curiously, but we tried to ignore them.

* * *

It took us fifteen minutes to get to the center of Rabat. Annabeth suggested that we check into a hotel for the night before we head to Egypt and get a good night sleep. That was all fine and dandy with us, except for that we need that money to rent us a car to get to Egypt. Percy joked that we should've brought the Stoll brothers along because they would've "found" money no problem.

As day turned to night, we stood in the middle of the city. Everyone was running around, seemingly in a hurry. If we'd been in a small town, people would have probably stopped to wonder what we were doing, but this was a big city; no one in big cities cares about who you are and what you do as long as it doesn't effect them.

We wandered around the streets for awhile, looking for a hotel that had someone who spoke English. Finally after nearly an hour, we found one. The man who ran the hotel was nice and spoke English better than the bus driver. Annabeth bargained with him to get a cheaper room because we didn't have a whole lot of money on us; the rest of us sat in the lounge, almost passing out from tiredness.

Finally, Annabeth and the man came and got us and showed us to the hotel room we were sharing, which had only two beds. We all threw our backpacks on the floor and immediately moved to claim a spot on the beds. Annabeth, however, stayed towards the door where the man stood.

"You all look too young to be traveling alone, especially in a different country. Where are you going?"

I looked back over at the man who didn't seem to be accusing us of anything, just curious and concerned.

"Luxor, Egypt. Do you know to get through the Sahara quickly?" Annabeth inquired.

He nodded, but clenched his jaw. "I wouldn't go through there; it's dangerous. If I were you, I'd go around. It takes a couple extra days, but it's safer. There's always sand storms and dust devils on the desert. "

Annabeth looked somewhat worried, but she pressed on. "Yes, but we don't have time to go around. We only have a few days that we can spend traveling. What's the quickest way?"

The man hesitated for a moment. "There aren't any roads that'll take you through the desert and to Luxor. Your best bet would be to take a couple of camels; they're fast and don't require a lot of care. Your biggest problem, aside from the danger, would be getting lost, so you better know your directions."

Annabeth smiled, "And where would we find these camels?"

* * *

*Author's Note*

Yeah, kind of suckish, but it's just a filler. You don't have to review for this chapter, cause it's not good.


	13. Chapter 13: Losing Grip On Reality

When you travel beyond the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, you come to the edge of the harsh Sahara desert. The mountains shield most of the country from the terrible weather and danger that the Sahara brings, but go beyond the safety of the mountains, you're pretty much on your own. All around you is sand and sun, hardly anything in sight. Occasionally, you'll get lucky and stumble across a village usually formed by nomads.

The man from the hotel was willing to take us to the edge of the mountains where you'll find a small village. There, he hooked us up with some nomads who agreed to let us borrow a few camels to get across the desert. The camels were fast when they ran, didn't require a whole lot of care and seemed to know the desert well enough to always head in the right direction.

There were six of us and only three camels; as if it wasn't obvious, we shared. The alpha camel lead the pack with Clarisse and I on it's back; Percy and Annabeth shared a camel that was right behind us. Michael and Grover were further back on their own camel.

We set out early in the morning, trying to cover as much ground as possible before noon-the hottest part of the day. As it turns out, it didn't much to help us. While the camels are a lot faster than us, we had over 2,000 miles of desert to get across and the sun quickly came out.

There was no place to hide-there was no shade in sight. There were no trees, no quaint vegetation to hide underneath to get at least a few degrees cooler in this harsh world. All around us was sand, sweat and dehydration.

The air was so hot that it felt as if my insides were burning. In just the first day, we all had some serious tans going on; by the second day, my skin was burning and peeling. I was the first of us who's skin was actually blistering from the heat…but I wasn't the first.

Day by day, we switched from riding the camels to walking. Our behinds and backs would ache from bouncing on top of the camels; our legs would feel as if they were on fire from walking all day. Our mouths were dry and Annabeth tried forcing us to drink very little water, as we only had so much and a whole lot of ground to cover.

Michael and I were the first ones to start getting cranky. The rest of the group would walk in silence as the two of us constantly yelled at one another for no apparent reason; I just kept finding myself angry at everything. Clarisse would try and get us to stop fighting, but it just seemed to take less energy to ignore us.

Annabeth, however, was the first one to start losing it. About five days into the trek across the desert, we started running out of water. Annabeth rationed the water even more than she'd before, but that wasn't that smart on her part. Occasionally, she'd point off things in the distance that weren't really there, but she was so convinced they were there that she'd start bolting for it.

Percy or Clarisse always ran after her and managed to convince her to come back to the group, but it was only slowing us down and complicating things. Clarisse tried to give Annabeth more water so she'd stay sane, but it didn't seem to work out so well.

Besides, the rest of us were losing it, too. Sometimes, I thought I saw water in the distance, like a lake or something. I'd get really excited, but I'd keep quiet in case it wasn't really there. As we got nearer, I'd realize that it was just a mirage. But sometimes, Michael or Grover yelled out and would get all riled up, just to be in near tears when they figured out that they were imagining it.

The only two who seemed to stay sane were Percy and Clarisse. Said girl took it upon herself to be the leader of this quest while Percy played babysitter; he constantly had to watch Annabeth who was deteriorating and acting child-like. She was cranky, dehydrated and paranoid.

But us losing it wasn't the only problem. We ran into a sand viper that was hiding underneath the sand and sprung out at Percy. He would've been bit, but Michael pulled out his bow and struck the snake in between the eyes with an arrow. Annabeth was sane enough to let us know that the sand viper's venom wasn't fatal, but it was painful.

* * *

By night, we chose a spot in the desert, made a fire and slept. The nights were cold, despite being in the middle of the Sahara. I wasn't sure how it happened, but it did. Each night, we all collected our wits and tried to force ourselves to become sane again, but it would just seem to disappear by the time morning broke.

I was dressed in a purple tee shirt, jeans and simple converse sneakers. None of us expected it to be cold in the desert, so we had nothing to wrap ourselves in to protect us from the sudden cold. I had a few different outfits with me, but I stayed dressed in my tee shirt and jeans; none of us really had the energy to change.

We sat around the fire in silence, none of us willing to talk or even look at one another. I knew perfectly what was on every single one of their minds: 'why did we agree to go on this quest?'

I felt really bad about asking them to come with me. I didn't know what kind of quest it would be and I didn't expect to have to travel through the desert the hard way. I especially didn't expect us to react so badly with the heat and the loss of water. If'd I known, I wouldn't have asked for the five to come with me.

We slept on mats that would get covered with sand in just a few minutes. The camels would sleep just behind us, grateful for rest. My body ached and longed for sleep, but it rarely came. Usually, I laid motionless on my mat and stared up at the stars. Soft snores came from my friends, but distant howls of wild dogs miles away were louder and kept me up. By the time dawn approached and I could feel myself finally falling asleep, someone would stir and announce it was time to travel onward.

On day eight across the desert, it was possibly the hottest. I was dripping with sweat, my tee shirt absolutely soaked. I smelled horrible, a mixture between going without a bath and too much body odor. The others didn't smell the best either, though.

My hair was plastered to my head and I dragged behind the others, in which Clarisse was walking in the lead, guiding a camel. I tried pushing my hair out of my eyes, but I didn't have the energy. I tripped and fell face-first into the sand.

Ahead of me, Annabeth turned to see what was wrong, but she turned her attention away from me and to something far beyond me. "You guys," she screamed with excitement, "there's water! Look!"

The others turned to see what she was babbling about this time, but Annabeth was already sprinting off in the opposite direction, yelling with glee. Clarisse and Percy immediately ran after her, yelling at her to stop.

I wasn't sure what was happening. The three running figures turned hazy and seemed to disappear. I felt Michael wrap his arms around me and pull me up. "Violet? Are you ok?" I gazed up into Michael's face, contorted with concern.

All of a sudden, Grover was yelling at the top of his lungs, "SAND STORM!"

I was aware enough to realize this was bad and dangerous. The winds in the sand storms can get so fast that grown men have been flung from one place to another; people get separated, animals die and you swallow fistfuls of sand. Michael set me down and ran to grab the camels as a wind picked up in the distance and sand swarmed around it, like it was a personal tornado.

I laid in the sand, too exhausted to move, as Grover and Michael hopped onto camels and started galloping towards me, the third camel running behind them as if its life depended on it. Slowly, I stood and went out to grab Michael's outstretched hand to jump onto a camel, but my vision suddenly blurred and my eyes burned.

I was blind. A heavy wind hit me will full impact and I could feel myself painfully strike the ground. Someone was calling out to me, but the wind was picking up and it sounded really distant. Something heavy landed on me and I quickly drifted into sleep.

* * *

*Author's Note*

Really rushed, but I felt bad about not updating for a while. I've been busy; between school, work and the ACTs, I haven't had a whole lot of time to write. I promise I'll try and make the next chapter better….

Reviews would be appreciated!

XxSamacoyxX


	14. Chapter 14: Waking

When I woke, there was only silence. There was something heavy on my chest and my leg that was injured earlier in the quest hurt more than it did when I'd gotten it. I opened my eyes was greeted by the bright sun. I quickly closed my eyes again and had to blink repeatedly for several minutes until I could take in my surroundings.

Sand was sitting on my chest and legs. It felt like a thousand pounds had just decided to take a rest on top of me. I sat up and pushed the heavy sand off of me; my entire body ached fiercely. Remembering the sand storm and Michael's frantic calls, I looked around.

No one was in sight.

I slowly stood and looked in every direction. There was nothing to point me in the right direction. Where were my friends? Where they okay? Where was I? After a few minutes, I started walking in a random direction, hoping it'd take me to the others.

* * *

I knew it was only a matter of time until I completely lost it. I was hungry, thirsty, injured, lost, alone and going insane. I kept hearing voices and catching glimpses of faces in front of me, but no one was there. Sometimes, I found myself talking to invisible people that would come out of nowhere.

Half of the time, I realized they weren't real; they were a hallucination, but other times, I don't think I really cared. I was desperate to not be alone. I was a social creature and could simply not live in solitude-I would go absolutely insane.

On my third night of being alone in the desert, I was freezing. Under the light of the moon, I could see mist forming where the cold air hit my hot breath. I shivered and twitched from the cold. As I was talking to myself, I looked up. I wasn't sure if it was just a hallucination again, but I swear I could see a village in the distance.

I ran with all I had, not even caring anymore if it was real or not. If I was losing it, at least I'd live in a fantasy that help was just within reach. I ran faster than I have since starting the quest; my leg screamed in protest, the long cut opening again as I ran at full speed. Eventually I reached trees and found myself in the middle of a small village filled with houses.

I ran up to the first house I saw and knocked furiously on the door. After about a minute of yelling and screaming, the door opened and a middle-Eastern looking man stood before me, looking more confused than ever.

"Please," my voice croaked, "help me."

The last thing I remembered before passing out was falling and the man catching me, yelling something in Arabic to someone unseen.

* * *

I woke up in a comfortable bed, something that surprised me greatly. I was still extremely hot, but nearly as much as I was earlier. My clothes no longer felt crusted and ruined from dry sweat and sand.

I opened my eyes and was greeted by the smiling face of Annabeth. "Hey," she said softly.

I tried to talk, but my throat hurt and my words came out slurred and rough, "What's going on?"

Annabeth opened her mouth to talk, but a woman walked into the room. That's when I first noticed my surroundings. I was in a small room that had cream-colored walls; there was only a dresser and desk in the room, if you didn't count the bed I was lying in. Looking down at myself, I noticed I was dressed in a white-cotton dress, rather than my clothes.

Annabeth wore a similar dress, as did the woman who entered. The woman had long, black hair and looked middle-Eastern, just like the man who greeted me when I ran into the village. She had a kind smile and a tray full of food.

"Good morning," she said with a thick accent.

She put the tray down on a small table beside me; on it was bread and water. "You must be very hungry, Violet. You haven't had anything to eat in the last few days that you've been here."

I was confused and it must've shown on my face. The woman frowned and turned to Annabeth, "perhaps you and the other children should explain."

She quickly left the room, but Clarisse, Percy, Michael and Grover marched into the room, all wearing white-cotton outfits.

"What's going on," I demanded, though my mouth was dry.

Annabeth took a deep breath and answered, "We were separated when the sand storm hit. Percy and Clarisse tried to catch me when I was hallucinating, but we just got split up; I felt back to normal after the storm, but I couldn't find them."

Michael came and sat on the other side of the bed, "I tried to get you to come with us, but the wind picked you up and you just went flying. The sand was flying around, so I couldn't see you. Grover and I looked for you, but we couldn't find you."

I frowned. "But…how did you all end up here?" Clarisse raised an eyebrow and the five exchanged glances. Slowly, as if uncomfortable, Clarisse said, "You found us. Or rather, you told them where we were and they came and got us."

"What? Who?"

Percy motioned towards the door where the owners of this house could be heard talking quietly in what I assumed to be Arabic. I only frowned more, not quite understanding. How could I tell them their location when I didn't even know? Better yet, how could I tell them and then not remember?

"What are you guys talking about? I can't remember!"

Annabeth looked away from with a disgusted look on her face. Slowly, she said, "I don't understand either, Violet. I was the first one they found and you…you weren't you."

Almost sick to my stomach, I had a vision of Annabeth screaming and running from me; it was night time and I was shaking from head to toe.

The vision faded and bit back the urge to throw up, "What exactly went on Annabeth?"

"You…were like, possessed. You were talking in Arabic and pointed out their exact locations on the map. Your eyes…they were glowing blue!"

Annabeth turned away from me, as if almost nervous I'd turn into whatever monster I'd been. I looked down at my hands which were cut up and bruised from the harsh weather of the desert. The other four were looking at me nervously, almost afraid of whatever had happened to me.

Slowly, I pushed back the covers to the bed I was in and stood up. The middle-Eastern woman came around the corner and into the room, smiling. "I see you have energy…that is good."

* * *

The house was small, as were most of the homes in the village. The family that lived here consisted of Absalom, his wife Kadira and their three teenage sons. Absalom made enough money to support his family as store owner just on the edge of a city in Libya; apparently, we traveled more land that we'd thought.

We were only a few hours away from the Egyptian border.

Kadira explained to me that we'd been at their home for four days, with the six of us only uniting the night before. I'd been in and out of consciousness, only waking when my sleeping-self had known the location of one of my friends.

I'm not sure what'd happened when I was sleeping. How I spoke Arabic or knew where the others were, I had no clue, but I had suspicions that it had to do with my father. Chiron had told me that dreams were especially important for me; perhaps I dreamt about my friends.

Annabeth didn't want to burden Kadira and her family any longer; they'd nursed us back to health and pushed us in the right direction. In the few hours I'd been awake and spent with the family before we left, I could feel my supposed ability to mimic someone show; I'd picked up half of Kadira's Arabic vocabulary just talking with her as she talked with a neighbor for twenty minutes.

Absalom agreed to let us have a beat-up truck he'd been meaning to get rid of for scrap metal, after we'd agreed to give him the camels that we'd been traveling with (Michael and Grover managed to keep the animals with them). Before sundown, we'd be in Egypt; a day after that, we'd been in Luxor.

Percy and I were the only ones with experience driving; his step-dad was cool about letting him when no one was around, and I used to "borrow" cars back when I was rolling with my friends in Chicago.

I hadn't thought about them in awhile, which made me really sad. They were my family and I basically abandoned them, just like everyone else in their lives. They weren't just homeless; they weren't just thieves in the night who had a trail of trouble following them wherever they went.

They were a group of lonely kids who were mistreated by their families, or forgotten, or just needed to get out of a bad situation. In this world, they had no one but their own two hands to rely on and when I left them, I only reassured them that idea.

Percy decided to drive first; he, Grover and Annabeth sat up front, protected from the hot desert air. Michael, Clarisse and I sat in the truck bed, hair going wild and occasional sand hitting us in the face.

I didn't bother to try and fix my hair; the powerful wind would just mess it up again. My leg was hurting. Although Kadira couldn't patch it up, my leg was wrapped up in gauze and finally clean, possibly keeping it from getting infected.

Clarisse sat calmly across from me, not caring at all that her hair was messed up. Her electric spear sat in her lap, with her clutching it tightly to keep it from bouncing all around the place. Her eyes met mine and she managed a smile.

I could tell she feared me, even if she could beat the hell out of me. She was frightened of what happened to me when I was sleeping. I think we all understood that it had something to do with my father, but it was still unnerving and not natural. Things like being possessed wasn't normal, even when it involved the Greek Gods.

Michael didn't seem to fear me, though. He sat next to me, humming something to himself. Michael always seemed to want to be near me, something I couldn't help but be suspicious about. Every once in awhile, I caught myself wondering if Michael liked me as more than just a friend, but that didn't make sense to me.

* * *

*Author's Note*

I do hope this is better than the last chapter….I try my best, so I hope everything's fine.

Anyway, reviews are always appreciated. Not required, of course, but appreciated.

XxSamacoyxX


	15. Chapter 15: Scarab

It seemed absolutely insane how fast we were going through the desert. At any given point, Percy and I kept the truck going as fast as we could while keeping an eye out for hidden holes in the sandy ground. We spent days wandering around the desert with a camel, yet it only took us about two days to make it across the entire country of Egypt to get to Luxor.

The first time we got asked for a visa was at the border between Libya and Egypt. When we'd been traveling across the desert earlier, no one had bothered to ask, as we never ran into anyone. However, the border guards apparently thought that six teenagers traveling across the continent of Africa alone was a little suspicious.

Michael was apparently taught how to manipulate the Mist. He snapped his fingers and convinced them that some papers sitting in the glove box in the truck were our visas; the border guards ate it up and let us through, wishing us a good day as we went into Egypt.

Egypt, for the most part, was like the rest of the land that we'd traveled across. The Sahara Desert took over much of Egypt and kept it in its grip tight. We'd occasionally come across smaller towns, but the big cities started rolling as soon as we hit the Nile.

I wanted to hit up Cairo and Alexandria, as did Annabeth, but we didn't have enough time; we'd already been on this quest for a couple of weeks and if we didn't return soon, Camp would probably think we died or something.

It was about 11 AM when we got to Luxor, thanks to the speeding of Percy and I. The air was surprisingly cool and we immediately headed to a restaurant to fill our empty stomachs-McDonalds. We all stuffed our faces with burgers and fries, except for Annabeth who said she needed to go to a store down the road. She said that she wanted to get a map of the tombs and needed to talk to someone. I couldn't imagine who she needed to talk to; after all, how can she know someone in Egypt?

After about an hour of eating, the five of us wandered the streets, looking for Annabeth and clutching a bag of food for her. It took us a while, but we finally found Annabeth in a shop talking to some Egyptian boy, acting like they were old friends.

The shop was small and obviously not a very popular destination; it was filled with strange smells and weird looking dolls that seemed to follow us with their eyes. Annabeth turned to us with a grin, "hey guys!"

I exchanged a glance with Clarisse who seemed just as weirded-out as I did. Slowly, I approached Annabeth, handed her the bag of food and looked the boy up and down.

The first thing I noticed is that he was obviously only half-Egyptian; his skin was a tad bit lighter than the other people we've seen and he had a rather gorgeous set of off-blonde hair. His eyes were a stunning and familiar shade of grey.

"Athena's your mother," I said firmly.

The boy grinned and nodded, "Who's yours?"

"Morpheus-laugh and you'll be plagued with bad dreams for life."

His facial expression did not change, so I assumed he didn't find my lineage funny, unlike his half-sister.

Annabeth shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You guys, this is Akil and he agreed to show us to the tomb of King Tutankhamun."

Akil's smile faded and he all of a sudden became more serious. "Yes, but I'm not actually going to go into the tomb; I'll take you as far as its entrance."

Clarisse scoffed, "Don't tell me you're afraid of the so-called curse of Tutankhamun."

Akil narrowed his eyes at her, "You'd be foolish not to believe. The Pharaohs were protected by the gods; there could easily be a curse. Let me guess, you're a daughter of Ares."

There was tension in the air; you could just tell that Akil and Clarisse were already not fans of one another and shouldn't be left alone. Then again, Clarisse rarely made friends.

I noticed Clarisse edging towards Akil with an angry look on her face, so I immediately stepped in-between them. "So, Akil, when are we going to the tomb?"

* * *

We left within minutes. Akil's father was a tour guide at the tombs; Akil stole his keys and got us some ATVs to get to our destination. We rode through the sand off course, trying to avoid tour guides, security guards and tourists: we couldn't afford to get caught.

When we first entered the Valley of the Kings, I couldn't help but be in complete and utter awe; it was huge, much bigger than I'd anticipated. I found it almost hard to believe that this gigantic chunk of land was strictly for the royals that ruled Ancient Egypt.

Akil was careful to be certain that we wouldn't be seen; the tourists were still out, but far away from the Tomb of King Tutankhamun. We got off of the ATVs and casually walked over to the locked gate to get inside the tomb. Akil had the lock off in seconds after he whipped out the key from his pocket.

He would only go as far as opening the gate. Akil, like many people, feared the curse of Tutankhamun; the pharaohs were thought to be the children of the gods and were revered as the connection between heaven and earth.

Besides, Akil was the son of Athena, making him smarter than the majority of us. If he was frightened, it was obviously for a reason.

Nethertheless, the six of us entered the tomb, Akil locking the gate behind us and standing beside us, waiting for when he came back out. I walked in slower than my friends, turning to look back at Akil as we entered; he had a look of pure fear on his face, which definitely didn't help my confidence level in this mission.

* * *

The tomb wasn't as big as I predicted. I knew that there was another tomb being built for Tutankhamun way back in the day, but he died before they could finish it. As a result, they ended up sticking him in a tomb that would've gone to someone else, perhaps a lower level relative.

It was dark, but we had a couple of flashlights. Clarisse clicked hers on and we were immediately greeted with the sight of hieroglyphics. Annabeth walked up, all excited, but Percy grabbed her arm.

"I wouldn't Annabeth. I know this is exciting for you, but we really don't have the time."

Annabeth looked pained, like she so desperately wanted to try and decode the writings on the wall, but she did realize that this was not the time to do so. Slowly, she backed up from the wall and flicked on her flashlight.

"Alright, we all know we're looking for the Scarab, so split up and try and find it. It'll probably be small, so search carefully."

I nodded and I assumed the others did too, because we immediately broke up and headed in different directions. I went right while the others all went left; for some reason, I felt drawn to the right.

While the tomb was fairly small, I quickly noticed that the others were out of hearing range. Their flashlights soon disappeared and I felt alone. My own flashlight kept landing on extravagant artifacts ranging from gold jewelry to large cat statues; pictures on the walls seemed to bounce around in the limited light and I kept catching glimpses of hieroglyphics that I could have sworn I could read.

Finally, my flashlight hit something large and gold; the light reflected off and irritated my eyes. I got closer and realized what it was-the coffin of Tutankhamun. Looking down, I met the eyes of the painted death mask.

Something pushed me to do it. Without realizing, I pushed the top of the coffin over until I was staring down at a blackened figure of the boy King who died when he was just 19, barely four years older than me. I was shocked that his body had lasted for over 3,000 years.

What shocked me even more was the dung-beetled shaped amulet that was resting around his neck-the Scarab, which was what we were looking for.

Smiling to myself, I unchained the amulet from the mummy's neck and held it up against the flashlight, examining it. It was gold and somehow colorful, even know it's been sitting in the dust for thousands of years. I turned away from the coffin, going off to find the others.

As I looked over the Scarab, I rubbed the head; immediately, it expanded into a gold and colorful shield that seemed to be coated in fire. Initially, I began to freak out at the shield formed to my arm and wrapped around it, securing it on my arm. Slowly, I smiled.

I opened my mouth to shout out to the others to come to me, but I heard a snap behind me. Immediately, I had a feeling of what it was and dread filled me. Slowly, I turned around to come face to face with the blackened face of King Tutankhamun who raised a hand aimed towards my face that came down quickly.

* * *

*Author's note*

Totally screwed up about the layout of King Tut's tomb, but I don't really care; this is how I wanted to write it. Sorry I left you hanging!

I'm really sorry that I haven't been updating a lot lately, I've been busy. I'll try harder! Reviews are always appreciated!


	16. Chapter 16: I Meet My Brother

I didn't know what happened or how I got here, but I was suddenly in a white room. No, not a room; this place seemed to have no dimensions. From what I could see, there were no ends to the this empty mass. It was simply a vast of white. I was on the floor and the shield was laying next to me.

I quickly lifted my eyes up, prepared to find the mummy standing over me, but it was no where in sight. Instead, a teenage boy with tan skin and cropped black hair and intense amber/brown eyes was standing over me. I jumped up, pulled out my sword (which transforms into a bracelet…if I haven't mentioned that yet…) and immediately let it swoop down to the hit the boy; a long golden sword appeared in his hands and he met my strike with surprising strength.

He quickly turned around and thrust his sword at my chest; I managed to deflect it, but it still had enough power to throw me back and onto my butt. He slashed through the air and I rolled to the side. A second later, his sword clanged against the ground where I'd been.

I grabbed the shield; it immediately formed to my arm. As the boy was going to strike me with the sword, I threw the shield up, deflecting his thrust. I prepared myself for another attack, but the boy dropped his sword to the side. As it clanged to the floor, I peeked around the shield; he was standing there, smiling.

"Put down the shield and sword, Violet."

I was dumbstruck; how did he know my name? I wasn't entirely sure why I dropped my only defense, but I did. I turned my sword back into a bracelet and pressed the figure of a dung-beetle on the shield; it became an amulet-necklace again.

Slowly, I stood up and faced the boy. He was only a few inches taller than me, so I could look him in the eyes. They seemed old, like they'd seen a lot.

"Who are you," I questioned.

"My name is King Nebkheperura Tutankhamun, but you can just call me Tutankhamun."

I could feel my eyes widen with surprise. I was talking to Tutankhamun, the boy King that died 3,000 years ago? But he didn't look dead. In fact, he looked like a pretty healthy 18 year old boy.

Tutankhamun chuckled a little, "Surprised, are you?"

"Well…yeah."

"I don't blame you much."

We were quiet for a few moments. I looked around the white, empty vast land we were standing in. "Where are we…Tutankhamun?"

He shrugged, "It's the dream world. This is where you store your dreams-the good and the bad."

I frowned; if this was the dream world, where were the supposed dreams? Why was Tutankhamun, an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh here?

He laughed again, "Don't believe me? You should, daughter of Morpheus."

"How'd you know who my father is?"

"The shield. Morpheus made that for his offspring; only his children can turn it from an amulet to a shield and use it."

Tutankhamun had a grin on his face, like I should've figured this out already. I racked my brains for the past events that happened in just the past few minutes. Slowly, it dawned on me.

"You're a child of Morpheus?"

Tutankhamun nodded, "All of the Egyptian pharaohs were demigod children of a Greek god. Most were the children of the Big Three, but it was a higher honor to be the child of Morpheus."

I was so confused. How was it that it was a high honor to be the child of a minor god back in the day, but now it's something to laugh at.

As if he read my mind, Tutankhamun said, "Dreams were very important to the ancient Egyptians, Violet. We used dreams to decide our future, our pasts and anything relating to daily life; we thought dreams connected us to the gods."

"But why isn't it seen as important today?"

Tutankhamun shrugged, "Things come and go in time. The Twelve Olympian gods have assured themselves as the ultimate power; most mortals only know about the Twelve and nothing about the minor gods."

I shook my head. It was hardly fair; the Twelve Olympians were selfish beings and couldn't even seem to bare to pretend there are more gods. Just look at Camp Half-Blood, there's only twelve cabins, forcing children claimed by minor gods to stay crammed in the Hermes cabin-it was so unfair.

Tutankhamun seemed to look alarmed, "Erase those thoughts from your mind, Violet. Those are the exact feelings that will force you to turn against the gods and your friends; think those, you'll find yourself serving Kronos."

"I'm not going to serve Kronos! Why would you say that?"

"Because your old friends on the Princess Andromeda want you to serve Kronos! Tell me, why do you think they went out and physically got you to get you to join the Titan King's army?"

I was dumbfounded; I'd wanted to know the answer to that exact question for quite some time now. I suppose it had been a little strange. Luke and Kronos' army didn't just go looking around for demigods to join them; they always waited for those sick of the crap the gods put us threw. Yet, Luke personally went out into the woods to seek me out; he kidnapped me so I could join Kronos' allegiance.

"Why did they want me so bad?"

Tutankhamun grinned, "Because of our father. He's joined Kronos because he's sick of being second to the Twelve Olympians; they want you because you have powers that match Morpheus'."

Forcing people into a deep sleep; imitating anyone from their physical appearance to their thoughts; going into dreams and making people see anything you want them to see. These were all abilities of Morpheus. Was it possible that I could do these too?

"You are a threat, Violet. No matter the fact that our father is a minor god, you are very powerful in your own right. You can't play with water like your little friend Percy, or have impossibly human wit like Annabeth, but you can effect them."

I frowned, not being able to grasp this.

Tutankhamun sighed and rolled his eyes, "Who do you think made them go crazy in the Sahara? You effected their daydreams and drove them nearly insane; granted, you started going crazy too because you haven't totally mastered your powers."

Tutankhamun grinned at my stunned silence. Personally, I didn't find it funny; I find it hard to believe that I could do something without knowing it and that it could lead to nearly killing my friends. Tutankhamun was acting like it was cool, when that was clearly not the case.

"How do I control my powers?"

"You'll have to figure that out yourself-I did. Now, are you almost done asking questions, because our connection is fading."

"No! I have just a few more questions; what is the use of this shield?"

Tutankhamun looked down at the amulet with a longing expression on his face. Slowly, I handed it to him; within seconds, he transformed it into the shield.

I noticed that it was gold with a white-marble border; small dark blue crowns were embedded in the border. Underneath the blue scarab in the middle was Μορφέας, Morpheus in Ancient Greek.

"What does the Scarab represent," I asked.

"Resurrection. Back in the Ancient Egyptian times, people thought it was magic that beetles would spring from dung; Scarabs were worshipped and often associated them with the gods."

"But why did Morpheus have it on the shield?"

Tutankhamun shrugged, rubbing the shield unconsciously, "I'm not really sure. If you ever meet Father, you should ask him."

I nodded slowly, "But how will the shield help me? Why did I get sent on a quest to just get a shield?"

"That you'll have to answer for yourself. It's a powerful weapon, though; it saved my life against some nasty monsters many times and saved our elder sister, Sakhmet, quite a few times."

"Who's Sakhmet?"

"She was the first of Morpheus' children and lived long before I did; Sakhmet was treated like a goddess because of her abilities, but she died when she was barely older than me. You see, we children of Morpheus seem doomed to die before we hit twenty."

I was taken aback and tried to imagine my supposed sister who lived well over 3,000 years ago, long before even Tutankhamun existed. Did she look like me? Now that I compared myself to Tutankhamun, I could see some resemblance; the high cheek bones, prominent eyebrows and slightly larger bottom lip. I picture Sakhmet as taller than us with even more noticeable features.

But what was really bothering was Tutankhamun's comment: "we children of Morpheus seem doomed to die before we hit twenty." Was there some kind of prophecy that decided our fate?

"How many other children did Morpheus have?"

"Not many. Father has an immortal wife, so I assume that he's fairly loyal to her; either that, or he just doesn't want us. But there was boy who lived in Japan in the 1400s, another boy who existed in the 1800s in Australia, and a girl who was from Hungary in the 1900s."

"And did they all die before they turned 20," I croaked out, fearing the answer.

With a solemn look on his face, Tutankhamun nodded.

"Does that mean I'll die before I'm 20?"

"I don't know. Just because we all died young doesn't necessarily mean that you will."

"But how can I find out?"

Tutankhamun shook his head and transformed the shield into the amulet and handed it to me. "I don't know, Violet. I know only the past; perhaps you should speak to the Oracle."

"But there's no time! There's a war coming and I can feel danger creeping closer everyday!"

"I understand this. You must fight in this war, Violet; the gods will not be able to help you and you're the only one who'll be able to match Father's powers. You must stop him from bringing power back to the Titans."

I shook my head; for some reason, I could feel tears swimming in my eyes. I thought this quest was just going to be a 'get in-get out' situation, but it was becoming so much more.

Tutankhamun rushed forward and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me slightly. "You don't understand, Violet! Father has turned his back on his godling brothers and sisters and must be stopped before he can help the Titans destroy the world! Use the shield against him and create a destiny worthy of many warriors!"

Slowly, I looked up to meet Tutankhamun's eyes. It was still hard to believe that the dead boy-king, someone who existed 3,000 years ago and was nearly forgotten was standing right in front of me. So many historians would literally kill to be in my position, looking right into his eyes; they'd ask so many questions about his life that they'd pass right along to the next generation.

And here I was, worried about my own safety.

He looked so old, despite being in the form of a 19 year old. His eyes told a thousand stories and were worn with age. I couldn't believe that he was my brother.

Slowly, Tutankhamun's grip relaxed, "The connection will be broken in moments, Violet. I've told you all I can; it is up to you to discover the rest."

I looked around and noticed that the white was slowly turning into grey and that Tutankhamun was also disappearing.

"Wait! I have another question!"

Tutankhamun's lower half had already disappeared and it was quickly making it's way to his face; the grey was turning into black.

"How'd you die," I yelled out.

Tutankhamun's mouth twisted into a smile.

* * *

I opened my eyes and found myself on the floor next to Tutankhamun's coffin; the amulet was lying right next to me. Quickly, I grabbed it and jumped up.

Lying in the coffin was a mummified Tutankhamun in the exact position I'd found him in earlier. For a second, I thought my meeting was just a day dream, but I glanced over at the wall behind the coffin; as if I could read hieroglyphics, I could make out "Morpheus."

I glanced back down at the mummified Tutankhamun and suddenly was overcome with an emotion that I imagine could be associated with leaving someone you'll never see you again.

"Well it was a pleasure meeting you big brother…"

I moved the coffin top back to its position to cover Tutankhamun and walked out of the tiny room in search of the others.

* * *

*Author's Note*

Sorry I suck with updates-I try. Anyways, I really like this chapter, although I could've written it better.

You know the drill people-I like reviews!

XxSamacoyxX

PS-Special shout out to Becca!


	17. Chapter 17: Wild Asses and Kisses

After leaving the tomb of Tutankhamun, the six of us met back up with Akil. He invited us over to his house for dinner where we met his eccentric father who had more books and maps than I could count; he was running around, yelling something about losing his favorite map, but you could see in his eyes why Athena had fallen for him-he was passionate about learning.

Akil's dad wasn't a good cook and we really had to force down the food he made, but we were still thankful; we got a place to sleep, showers and packed up food for the trip back. Akil's stepmother washed all of our clothes and practically packed our stuff for us. When we got our backpacks from her, we found that they were stuffed with snacks and water bottles.

The boys crammed into Akil's bedroom for the night; Clarisse, Annabeth and I took the guest room with Annabeth and I in the bed and Clarisse taking the floor. Annabeth fell asleep quickly, dropping like a rock as the sun went down and a cool breeze swept through Luxor.

I had a harder time sleeping. As cars drove by, lights danced on the walls, distracting me from sleep. Clarisse rolled over from her spot on the floor and looked at me.

"Are you awake?"

"No, I'm sleeping."

"Very funny."

Clarisse sat up and folded her legs, sitting on them. Her hair was a mess, but she didn't seem to mind. She looked me straight in the eyes.

"What happened in the tomb, Violet?"

"What are you talking about?"

Clarisse looked down and played with a stray string from her blanket. "You were just acting weird after you told us you found the scarab…did something happen?"

I looked over at her from my position on the bed. Clarisse was a big and scary girl, sometimes it was hard to remember that she was human and had feelings too. Clarisse didn't like being lied to or having something withheld from her knowledge. Perhaps it got lonely with everyone looking down on you and dismissing you as only the muscle of the group.

I sighed and looked back at the ceiling. "I found out that the Scarab amulet is a shield…it was made by my father."

"But why was it in King Tut's tomb? Unless…" her voice drifted off like she was thinking hard.

I nodded, "Yeah. He's my brother. Apparently, I only have five siblings."

"How did you know that he's your brother? Did Chiron tell you?"

I shook my head and looked back at Clarisse. "No…as crazy as it sounds, Tutankhamun told me."

Her mouth tightened, but Clarisse didn't say anything. In the world of a demigod, anything is possible, no matter how crazy it sounds.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, listening only to the occasional car drive past and Annabeth's slow and quiet breathing. Clarisse laid back down on the ground and faced the wall.

I felt myself drifting off to sleep, suddenly exhausted from the day's adventure. As I was about to close my eyes, Clarisse asked in all seriousness, "Do you think we'll win the war coming up?"

I thought for a second. It felt like a million years ago that I found out I was a demigod; a million years ago, I was just a homeless troublemaker stealing to survive; a million years ago, I didn't have to worry about getting killed every other second. And here I was, nearly 16 and would be fighting a war in less than a year.

"I have no doubt that we'll lose against the Titans, but we'll at least die trying."

* * *

The next morning, we set out to return home. Percy still insisted that we couldn't take an airplane home, despite how quick it would be. Instead, we filled the truck with gas and had a couple of tanks filled so we wouldn't have to worry about finding a gas station until we got to Algeria.

Akil's step mom loaded us up with food and water bottles, which was a lifesaver. As long as we didn't completely pig out, it should last us until we get to Morocco; after that, we could use the last of our money to get us enough food to last until we got back to Camp Half-Blood.

Early in the morning, Percy took the first shift to drive. Annabeth nearly always sat up front while the rest of us rotated turns in the bed of the truck. I wasn't sure why she insisted on riding in the front, as she never seemed like the kind of girl who was worried about her hair getting messed up in the wind.

It wasn't obvious until we really started flying across the Sahara, the truck jumping with every small bump and all of us having to hold on tight to keep from falling out. I primarily held onto the tanks of gas, as they were too heavy to just jump out of the truck. Clarisse gripped the sides of the truck, a look of pure concentration on her face. I knew Percy didn't mean for us to have to hold on for dear life, as we were in a hurry to get back home, but it was still a little aggravating.

Huh, home. Somehow, it registered in my mind that I would never return back to the streets of Chicago and join my former friends. I'd only spent a few weeks at Camp Half-Blood before I was sent on my quest, yet I still found an attachment to the place, like I belonged there. I never felt more free or secure then when I first got to Camp.

We hit another bump, sending me out of my thoughts. I gripped harder onto the tank of gas, but Michael lost his grip on the side of the truck and fell onto me. His head collided with my jaw and I could feel my tooth chip. Michael rubbed his head with one hand and grabbed a gas tank with the other, holding on tightly.

He smiled sheepishly and sat against the cab of the truck. Next to me. Annabeth opened the window, "From what I can see, there are no more bumps for awhile; I'll let you guys know if they're coming up."

She closed the window again, locking her, Percy and Grover in the air conditioned, padded-seat, and safe from sand truck. Clarisse, Michael and I loosened our grips on the items securing us in the truck bed. Clarisse scooted away from us, heading towards the further end and looked at the trail in the sand we were leaving behind.

The sun beat down on us, tanning the three of us even more; there was no shade for us. I knew Michael was using his powers as the son of Apollo to dim the light the sun was giving off slightly, but it was still pretty bright. Michael glanced at me and met my eye. For the first time, I noticed he had blue eyes (I know it doesn't say it in the books, but I always pictured him with dark blue eyes) that made Michael look like he was 20, rather than 15 (again, me assuming…) .

Michael grinned, which was usually rare for the always scowling boy. "What are you looking at Violet?"

I blushed and tore my gaze away from his dazzling white teeth. I looked over at Clarisse, who had a small smile playing on her face, but acted as if she hadn't noticed anything.

Earlier, I'd had a feeling that Michael liked me. Was it possible I was falling for him?

* * *

That night, the air was cool and I pulled a blanket Akil's step mom had packed into my bag. I curled up, leaning against the cab as Percy and Annabeth slept just a few feet away. Clarisse was given a quick lesson earlier on how to drive, so she took over for an exhausted Percy a few hours ago and sat up front with a sleeping Grover.

Michael lay snoring next to me. I stared up at the stars, still not used to the absolute and utter awe I felt every time I looked at them; it was so hard to believe that someone so beautiful existed, even if Aphrodite was real.

Michael grunted in his sleep; I snapped my head to look at him. His ferret like features were completely relaxed, like he was having a fairly pleasant dream. For a moment, I wondered if it was because of me. Percy once mentioned that he started having good dreams when I started attending Camp Half-Blood.

I put my head against the metal of the truck and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

In my dream, I was at Camp Half-Blood. I was in a tree at night. I looked to my right; Will Solace was positioned in a tree about ten feet away from me and had his bow at the ready. On my left, the blonde and beautiful Kayla is also in the pose to hunt from a height.

I look down, scanning the forest floor as several large and dangerous looking campers guard the flag of Ares. All of a sudden, there's a gasp from Kayla and in a flash, she's out of the tree, wrapped in a net. In the time that it takes me to react, I spot myself, Chris Rodriquez and the tiny unclaimed girl named Isabelle all staring up at me and Will near me; I go to release my arrow from my cocked bow, but I'm already caught in a net and falling face first into the ground.

The first thing I realize is that this is not my dream. This is a dream of a memory, one specifically of Michael's. I immediately don't question this, as I know this can be the only case. As Michael remembers the cut he had on his cheek, I could also feel the sting that it had created when he fell.

Michael looks up; I'm standing over him, a serious look on my face and looking in all directions, bow cocked just in case. A murmur of delight speeds up Michael's heart and his breathing becomes shallow, like he's waiting for something; I'd expected him to be angry that I knocked him from the tree, but Michael almost felt glad to see me.

Michael catches his breath as I open my mouth to apologize, "Sorry guys, I had to."

Kayla and Will grimace and mutter their defeat. I grin once at Michael and then I'm gone, heading for the flag. Michael's excitement from seeing me dies down as Kayla and Will start arguing about how much it sucks that they get 'out-arched' by someone who isn't even a daughter of Apollo or a hunter of Artemis.

Loud shouts come from the direction of the flag and I immediately knew it's from when all of us ambushed the other team. Michael's heart thumped as he thought of me fighting against the much larger and tougher Ares campers; a minute or so later, I raced past him, Clarisse and her Ares siblings right behind me.

Michael struggled against his bindings to help me, but he couldn't get loose. His heart sank.

* * *

I woke to the truck suddenly stopping. I slammed my head into the wall of the cab. I opened my eyes and immediately had to shut them again. The sun was out and beaming down on us mercilessly. Clarisse was laying down in the bed; I turned to see Annabeth and Percy in the cab, Percy at the wheel.

I pushed the blanket off of me and stood up. Percy opened the door and got out of the truck; a few feet away from us were donkeys. Michael stood up next to me. I turned, squinting my eyes from the light.

"What's going on?"

He shrugged, "We're lost, so Percy's asking some Wild Asses for directions."

I raised my eyebrows, feeling that I've officially reached the ability to disbelieve the world I was thrown into. Talking donkeys? At least…donkeys that talk to Percy?

Percy and the horses seemed to be having a stare down, but eventually, Percy got back into the truck and started driving along side the relatively small herd of donkeys.

I sat back down next to Michael as the donkeys seemed to lead us. My hair was flowing in the wind and I had to sit back against the cab again to keep it from going wild. With embarrassment from witnessing Michael's dream and intruding on his memory, I sheepishly smiled at Michael, who looked confused.

"Why are you smiling," he mused.

I shrugged and clasped my hands together. Michael averted his eyes down to my hands and slowly reached out, touching them. Shivers ran through my body and his touch felt electric.

Michael unhooked my hands and held my left one in his hands, tracing the lines. I looked up at his face and found him staring intently into mine. He grinned.

"You have very beautiful hands, Violet."

I raised my eyebrows, finding that to be a very odd compliment.

His smile widened and he leaned in slightly.

"You have even more beautiful lips, Vi."

Michael leaned in all the way and touched his lips to mine.

* * *

For the rest of the ride, Michael and I sat hand in hand, grinning like idiots. Clarisse rolled her eyes and smiled when she woke, as if she were waiting for this to happen. When it came time for me to drive the truck, I kicked Annabeth out of the cab so Michael could sit next to me. Michael and I didn't talk, but we didn't have to. In that one kiss, I felt like we really knew each other.

In just two days, the Wild Asses led us completely across the Sahara Desert and to the town we'd first encountered in Morocco. Percy whole-heartedly thanked the animals as they ran off back to the desert. Annabeth, remembering where we left our boat, led us to the lone beach where we'd left it as it became night.

Michael and I trailed behind the others, holding hands. It was a little awkward, as I nearly towered over him. I was a tall girl and he was a short boy and I'm sure it looked really strange, but I didn't care. It felt right, me holding Michael's hand and looking like a couple.

As we reached the beach, Percy spotted the boat and we all climbed in. Using his abilities, Percy guided us out into the ocean and back towards home. As we started speeding along the water with us surrounded in near darkness (the only was the stars and moon, obviously), I glanced at Michael who was eyeing me with a strange look on his face.

"What," I giggled.

"You have no idea how relieved I am that you're not my sister."

The two of us started laughing hysterically and continued to do so, even well after the others moaned for us to shut up.

Rudely, Clarisse sighed. "I'm already contemplating strangling them."

* * *

*Author's Note*

Definitely my favorite chapter! In my mind, Michael and Violet are a cute couple. Oh and if you're confused about the timeline, I translate "The Battle of the Labyrinth" and "The Last Olympian" to be a full year apart…I'm not sure if that's right, but I don't care!

Reviews appreciated!

XxSamacoyxX


	18. Chapter 18: I Pass OutAgain

We sped along the Ocean at impossible speeds, thanks to Percy's abilities. While this was a vast ocean, we'd probably be back home in just a couple of days at least; if we're lucky, it'll take about a day and a half.

Water occasionally sprayed us, but we all just ignored it. Michael and I sat together on one side of the boat, holding hands and chatting; the others stayed on the other side, avoiding us like we had the plague. I didn't understand why they were acting the way they were, when I knew each and everyone of them was wrapped up in the love bug.

"So," Michael began, "I'm really glad I came on this quest. Although I thought we'd get something a little cooler than a shield." He was shaking his head and looking at the amulet that I'd put onto a necklace around my neck.

The whole lot had been curious about the amulet/shield. I guess I have to admit it, it seemed a little ridiculous that we went on a mission that could have killed us for a shield. Perhaps the Oracle would give us a cooler quest next time.

I rolled my eyes at Michael and instinctively wrapped my hand around the amulet. "I know it seems a little weird, but Tutankhamun said that it's important. If I wasn't supposed to have it, we wouldn't have been sent on a quest for it."

He nodded and looked away into the water. Far away from us, a pod of Killer whales were moving in the same direction as us. Occasionally, you could see them breathing and jump, like they enjoyed splashing one another with the water. I smiled to myself at the innocence of them, despite all the rumors that they're man-eaters.

As day turned to night, we decided to sleep. While we insisted that Percy sleep, too, he claimed that he could stay up for the estimated day and a half that we'd continue to be on the ocean, manning the boat. We disagreed whole-heartedly, but as Percy was thick headed, we lost the shouting match that ensued against him.

As Michael and I cuddled together, I fell asleep quickly. As the daughter of Morpheus, I seemed to have a talent of falling asleep whenever I wanted to; that is, if I wasn't distracted. But I wasn't now. I felt that I was overly tired and couldn't wait to return to Camp. My spot on the floor of the Hermes cabin was going to be quite welcoming.

Immediately, I began to have dreams.

My dream consisted of a living Tutankhamun in the aired land of Luxor, Egypt. He was walking through a corridor in his vast palace; on either side of him walked two servant girls, wearing considerably tactless clothes compared to Tutankhamun. At the end of the corridor stood a tall girl of about twenty-one; she had long black hair that reached her behind and stunningly beautiful features similar to Tutankhamun's. She smiled brightly; Tutankhamun did the same.

As he neared the girl, Tutankhamun raised a hand, "leave us," he announced. Immediately, the servant girls turned on their heels and walked back down the corridor, heading somewhere unseen.

As Tutankhamun reached the girl, his smile widened even more and he grabbed her hand, kissing it ever so lightly, "Ankhesenamun," he murmured lovingly. She giggled slightly and blushed.

Immediately, I understood. This was Tutankhamun's wife, Queen of Egypt. They were brother and sister; they'd been forced to marry, as royals used to only marry within the family to keep the royal bloodline going, but it was clear that the two really did like one another.

Tutankhamun held out his arm for Ankhesenamun, who took it gingerly. Together, they walked from the corridor and into a shaded garden. Immediately, Tutankhamun's limp was noticeable. Ankhesenamun either chose to ignore it or she'd grown used to it, for she simply strolled on like he wasn't walking slowly.

They sat down on a wooden bench next to a small fountain. Tutankhamun turned to look left and saw a menacing guard standing just outside the garden, watching the two with hard eyes. Tutankhamun shuttered and turned back to his wife, who began to pout.

"I am sick of these guards, Tutankhamun. They are supposed to protect us; why do they seem to threaten us?"

Tutankhamun shook his head and patted his wife's hand reassuringly, "I don't like them either, but they're just doing their job."

However, Tutankhamun kept shooting the guards surrounding the garden careful looks, almost afraid of them. Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun stayed huddled together, whispering together for a few minutes until a servant girl from earlier walked into the garden, a mixed look on her face.

She stopped right in front of the King and Queen, who both raised eyebrows expectantly at her.

"My King, you are being summoned by your father."

Tutankhamun turned to his wife with a look of disbelief on his face. Ankhesenamun nodded encouragingly, "Go to your father. It is an honor, husband." She patted his hand once and then let go, signifying that he should leave.

Slowly, Tutankhamun stood and followed the young servant down the corridor. Just before Tutankhamun disappeared out of sight, Ankhesenamun smiled reassuringly and waved.

Tutankhamun followed his servant for several minutes until she led him to the Throne Room; Tutankhamun dismissed the girl and entered the large room. Standing near a large golden, jewel encrusted throne stood a man with blonde hair; he wore traditional Ancient Egyptian linen clothes, close to Tutankhamun's wear. Their facial features were similar, except for the skin color, and I could see myself in the man.

It was Morpheus.

Tutankhamun lingered near the door, almost afraid of getting close to Morpheus. He took a visual gulp and timidly took a few steps forward towards our father. Morpheus eyed the boy with interest.

"Father? You summoned me?"

Morpheus nodded and flicked a finger. Suddenly, Tutankhamun was standing right in front of him, eyes wide with shock and fear. Morpheus looked down into the boy's face, eyes dead and void of emotion.

"I'm afraid your time is up, boy."

"Wh…what are you talking about?"

Morpheus scoffed. "I offered you a deal to join me in a war against the Gods. I gave you one year to decide and now I want your answer."

Tutankhamun looked down at his feet, trembling with fear. His voice shook as he answered, "I can not." Morpheus visibly tensed; Tutankhamun flashed his eyes up to him, making him look like a small child who was about to get into serious trouble, rather than a 19 year old King.

Morpheus tightened his jaw. "Then you are not the child of my Prophecy; you are not the child of mine who will raise the Titans and give me power over the Olympian gods. You are no use to me."

Morpheus' eyes flared and Tutankhamun backed away quickly. A light flashed and Tutankhamun was on the ground, laying in a large puddle of blood seeming to stem from his head. Morpheus walked over to his dead son, hands held behind his back. Tutankhamun looked up into Morpheus' grey eyes, trembling with pain.

Morpheus frowned and cocked his head to the side, "Why must all my children refuse my offer? I give you everything you wish; you and your siblings have always been Kings and Queens, yet none of you can not repay me with help in one simple request? You act as if it is fair that I am treated second class compared to the Olympians."

With that Morpheus stomped down and the dream went black.

* * *

I woke with a start and a yell from Percy. It was barely light out, as if it was the early morning. Immediately, I jumped up and turned to look in the direction that Percy and the others were facing. Standing hundreds of feet above the water was a scaly creature that looked as if it walked straight out of a Godzilla movie.

It had two arms, but three spear-like tails that whipped around. The ocean was violently thrashing around it, hitting our small boat with insane force. The creature opened its mouth and let out an ear-piercing yell that itself moved the boat. I was thrown back into Annabeth, who fell down.

"What the hell is that?"

Annabeth moaned from me behind me, "The Kraken."

Racking my head through Greek mythology and history, I couldn't come up with anything. All I knew was this was bad.

"How do we fight it," I asked timidly.

Percy turned to me, eyes wide and full of fear, "We can't."

Clarisse shook her head bravely, but even I could see her shake with fear, "There's always a way."

As if on cue, she whipped out her spear and shield. The rest of us followed just as quickly; I turned the amulet into the shield and transformed my sword. Despite our weapons, I knew we stood no chance against the giant creature in the water. It yelled again, this time with such force that we were actually flown from the boat and into the water.

The second I touched the water, the powerful currents sucked me down several feet. I forced my eyes open and saw Percy shoot off towards the Kraken, probably about to try and take it down using his abilities.

I kicked to the surface and broke through, take a huge, deep breath. Around me, the others were breaking the surface as well; Percy was shooting water into the air, trying to get it to wrap around the Kraken. Apparently, this only made the Kraken angrier. One of its tails whipped through the air and struck the water, sending me flying again.

I went back underwater, this time farther. The air in my chest rushed out and water filled my lungs; dark spots appeared in my eyes and the water was suddenly ice cold. The sword and shield turned back into the respective amulet and bracelet. I looked up and saw Michael frantically swimming down towards me, but the Kraken's tail whipped the water again, spinning Michael out of sight.

I went flying through the water, arms and legs flailing. My vision went completely black.

* * *

Something was pounding against my chest. Repeatedly, something hard pushed against it; occasionally, someone would touch my face and hold my nose. I didn't understand why and I didn't like it, for I'd been sleeping so peacefully. I never had good dreams anymore, so I was upset that they were disturbing me when I actually was having a decent one.

"Violet, please, breathe!"

Someone was yelling distantly. It was hard to hear them, as if they were in a room and the walls were muffling their cries. More yells ensued and I quickly decided that there were more than one people yelling.

The cries were becoming so frantic sounding that I tried to force myself to open my eyes, to help them. They sounded in such pain and agony that I couldn't just ignore them. I fought to open my eyes or even my mouth to yell out to calm them.

I opened my eyes and came face to face with Michael. His face was twisted with pain and tears were streaming down his cheeks. I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but all of a sudden, I was choking up water. His face contorted to relief and he lifted me into a sitting position, patting my back as I spit up the water. Behind me, the others stood with looks of relief.

I finished choking up water and looked into Michael's face. My breathing was hoarse and I felt dead tired, as if I'd run a marathon. Michael smiled a little and hugged me.

"Don't do that ever again, Violet!"

"Wh…what about the Kraken?"

I looked around and noticed we were back in the boat and speeding along the water very quickly.

Annabeth shook her head, flinging water everywhere; I noticed that we were all still soaking wet, with the exception of Percy who was perfectly dry.

"Percy managed to cut off one of its tails; when it was distracted with the pain, he came after all of us. We were all looking for you. You were drowning, Violet."

I made eye contact with Percy, who gave me a small smile. Beside him, Grover shook his head and muttered to himself. Percy looked out over the water, keeping an eye out for another attack of the Kraken.

I laid against Michael's chest, who held onto me protectively. I was exhausted and fell into a deep slumber, which led to many uneasy dreams.

In one in particular, a girl who I took to be Sakhmet was sitting on a throne, dozens of peasants sitting at her feet. An older woman cooed, "please help my family. My children are deathly ill and I believe your abilities can help them." Several people murmured in agreement, but Sakhmet scoffed and turned her nose upward.

"I only help when I am paid."

The peasants started pealing with Sakhmet, insisting that they had no money, but would be her servants for life in exchange for their children's health. Sakhmet raised a hand; silence fell over the people.

"I told you, I'm not interested in service. If you want your children to live, you'll give me money. If you have no money, you're better off killing the children; be gone." she barked in a high-pitched, harsh voice.

The peasants quickly dispersed from the room and Sakhmet started to pet a cat sitting on her lap. She hummed to herself happily until there was a flash of light. Standing in front of Sakhmet was Morpheus.

"Have you made your decision, my child?"

Sakhmet initially had a look of fear on her face, but she sneered.

"I've received what I want, Father. I'm not going to help you raise the Titans. If you were meant to rule over the Olympians, you would've been able to long ago."

Sakhmet went back to petting her cat, who growled towards Morpheus. Said man raised his eyebrows.

"You take yourself too seriously, Sakhmet. Don't forget that your power has come from my blessing."

Sakhmet opened her mouth with a look of anger on her face, but there was another flash of light and she lying dead on the floor; the cat was standing near her, hissing with fear.

* * *

When I woke, Percy announced that we were only a few minutes away from the Camp Half-Blood beach. Ahead of us, I could see the beach and several people standing in the sand, waving excitedly.

As I pushed away from Michael's chest and pulled the blanket off of me, I realized exactly why all my siblings died young. My father knew of a Prophecy that said one of his children would help him reach higher power. To convince his children to help him, he gave them everything they could imagine.

I knew my father would soon come to call on me, with us being so close to the war between the gods and Titans. More precisely, I knew that I'd rather die than accept his offer.

* * *

*Author's Note*

Sorry that I suck at updating lately. I have a lot of homework, babysitting, work, and parental health issues. I promise to try and do better.

Sorry if you don't like this chapter, I tried. Reviews are appreciated!

XxSamacoyxX


	19. Chapter 19: Late Night Sneakout

My sword clanged against an unnamed demigod who turned against her own heritage. Her eyes flashed with pure anger and hatred; she swiveled to jab her sword in-between my armor. I deflected her with my shield. Hitting her in the face with the hilt of my sword, the blonde demigod was down on the ground and wasn't getting back up soon.

I looked all around me; a group of kids barely old enough to wear make-up or not need a babysitter were engaged in full scale battle, dropping like flies. Blood was all around; screams filled the air. Swords clanged against one another, the deathly sound ringing in everyone's ears.

This wasn't right. This shouldn't have been happening. Our parents didn't have us so we could just kill one another; we went to Camp to fight monsters, not our siblings.

Just a couple yards away, Luke was battling Clarisse. She put up a dangerous fight, but her injured leg made it hard to win. As I ran forward to help her, Luke stabbed Clarisse in-between her armor, causing the daughter of Ares to fall with a sickening look on her face.

Luke quickly looked around, trying to find Percy, I assumed when I got his attention. He grinned darkly and prepared his sword as I ran forward; within seconds, we were inches apart, swords striking one another. His hot breath tickled my cheek as he raised his sword to slit my throat; I deflected him with my own sword, but his blade accidentally cut my cheek as I pushed him away.

Immediately, he counterattacked and struck me with my signature move: he turned on his heel, a fake out move that looked as if he was going to attack my midsection. Instead, he whipped his sword into my legs and struck my face with his shield, throwing me backwards.

I landed in a heap on the ground, legs burning with pain and blood falling freely from my wounds. Luke stood over me, grinning with victory, sword blade at my throat.

"Sorry, Violet, but you should have joined us. You could have been a Queen amongst the mortals."

He hesitated just one more second, before he lunged his sword down.

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I woke up in a cold sweat. My breathing was hoarse and I was shaking. Looking around, I took comfort in the fact that I was in the Hermes cabin, laying on my sleeping bag on my spot on the floor. I laid back down and closed my eyes, breathing slowly.

People looked at us weird after we got back from the quest. Percy and Annabeth spent all their time together with Chiron and the other cabin leaders, planning our strategy for the battle against the Titans, so I never really got to talk to them, or Clarisse and Michael. The latter tried to spend as much time with me as he could, but he was constantly doing something else.

I found myself talking a lot to Silena, who seemed to be the only one who understood what I was going through. She was just as frustrated over the impending battle as I was, maybe more. I didn't tell her anything about the fact that pretty soon my dad was going to ask me to betray the other campers and the gods. In fact, I hadn't told anyone; I was worried that they wouldn't trust me anymore.

But Silena did answer all of my questions about dating and relationships, something that I wasn't very sure of. Back in Chicago, Jack thought that I was his girlfriend or something, but I never really confirmed it; that had been my closest encounter with dating.

Being the daughter of Aphrodite, Silena knew a lot about love and relationships. For hours at a time when she wasn't forced to help plan with the others, she'd tell me about little things I could do here and there to show Michael I cared about him, even if I never got to see him.

If he wasn't planning, he was training. If he wasn't training, he was sleeping. If he wasn't sleeping, he was helping his siblings make bows and arrows. We only got to spend time together once in the two weeks that we've been back at Camp; that was only because I volunteered to help the Apollo cabin make arrows one evening. Michael and I got to talk for about twenty minutes, until he moved on with one of his sisters to work on the bows.

I wasn't allowed to participate in helping plan the battle strategy; only Cabin leaders, Dionysus and Chiron were permitted to see the plans. Annabeth said that it wasn't anything personal, they just thought that too many "extras" would get in the way. Still, I couldn't help but feel insulted and a little angry as Michael always came to get the Stoll brothers from the Hermes cabin nearly every night and he could barely manage a hello to me.

Today was a rare day that the cabin leaders weren't cooped up in the Big House planning. I was at archery with Michael, Percy and Annabeth, firing off arrow after arrow. Percy was off…by a lot. Annabeth was criticizing him as usual, saying how he was going to get someone killed, while Michael and I sat on the sidelines, talking.

"I'm really sorry I haven't been able to see you a whole lot lately, Violet," Michael pleaded, a frown on his face and his eyebrows furrowed.

I shook my head, "No, it's alright, Michael."

I looked away from him, to where one of Michael's sisters was freaking out on Percy, who'd barely missed the girl's head with a stray arrow. He grabbed my hand, rubbing the skin with his thumb.

"I'm just sorry that Chiron won't permit you to help us. It's not fair and I think that everyone has the right to help plan the attack. After all, you guys are going to be fighting."

I turned my head to look at him, catching a glimpse of fear in his eyes before he looked down at his shoes. "What I need is a cabin; if I had one for my father, I'd be the counselor."

Michael nodded slowly, "What are you thinking about Violet?"

I sighed, not really wanting to admit what I'd been thinking about. After all, this was the time when the suspected traitors were tossed out of Camp, simply because they revealed their feelings; the gods weren't taking any chances.

Slowly I spit out, "I think it's unfair that the minor gods don't get to have cabins. I like everyone in the Hermes cabin, but I would actually like to have a bed to sleep in."

Michael looked away from and pulled away his hand, leaving my hand with a burning feeling that was just itching for Michael's touch. Suddenly, I felt like I'd betrayed him and felt ashamed for even thinking about that; that was how Kronos wanted us to feel, so we'd go over to him.

I grabbed Michael's arm, "Hey, don't get mad. I was just saying."

He turned to me, mouth in a tight line. "You don't want to get caught 'just saying' that, Violet. You'll kicked out of here so fast I won't see you again."

I narrowed my eyes. "Maybe that's why the kids of minor gods go to Kronos; just because they want their own place to sleep, the gods throw them out. It seems to me that they'd feel abandoned and betrayed. Kronos would probably welcome them."

I crossed my arms and scowled at the others; several Apollo demigods, a son of Athena, and Annabeth were currently trying to wrestle a bow and arrow out of Percy's grips, fed up with his bad aim and dangerous archery lessons. Michael sighed deeply and turned to me.

"I'm sorry if I upset you, Violet. It's just….that's what people say before they go to Kronos and the Titans."

I rolled my eyes and faced him; his blue eyes were sad and watery, like he was imagining me go over to Kronos.

"Don't forget I was already once on Kronos' side, Michael. I saw the kind of things they were doing to defiant demigods who refused to join them; why would you think that I'd actually go back? If I'd wanted to stay with them, I would've fought Percy-I wouldn't have let him take me."

With that, I stood up and walked back to the Hermes cabin, leaving Michael in my wake.

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That night, I didn't dream. I didn't sleep. I was afraid my father would come to me in my dreams to persuade me to betray my friends and turn my back on the gods. Momentarily, it seemed like a good idea: with Kronos, the Twelve Olympian gods wouldn't rule the world and the minor gods that fought for the Titans would finally get a little recognition.

But I quickly banished those thoughts from my head. The last thing I needed was to actually think about joining the evil in this war. The Titans would surely keep the world in pain and suffering; the gods at least let humans have their freedom. There was no doubt in my mind that the Titans would enslave the humans.

I laid down on my sleeping bag, loud snores surrounding me from the many demigods crammed into the cabin. I pushed off the floor, rolling up my sleeping bag and putting it off to the side. Gathering a tank top and jeans, a changed out of my pajamas in the bathroom.

While it was about three and I was definitely breaking curfew, I left the cabin and walked down to the beach, settling down in the sand. The moon was high in the sky; the stars were bright. The light waves crashed against the sand, the water making its way in-between my toes.

This was a great place to think, one of the most peaceful parts of Camp. When they'd first created Camp, they should've built the cabins right next to the ocean. I sat alone for quite some time, arms wrapped around my knees and just watching the constellations; the Huntress moved across the sky, bow ready and waiting to attack.

"You seem to always be out here, young one."

I froze. I'd heard that voice enough to know who it was on the spot. I turned slowly around to face my father.

Morpheus was standing about twenty feet away, short blonde hair waving in the wind; he looked exactly like he had in my visions of my siblings, except he was wearing a dark blue sweater and dark jeans. He was smiling softly as he moved towards me, sitting down beside me.

I immediately felt discomfort and tense, my mind shouting at me to just run away. Morpheus turned to me, a huge grin on his face.

"So you are Violet, my first child in almost 80 years."

I nodded slowly, twisting my hands together.

He chuckled, "why do you look so tense child? Do you fear me?"

I shook my head, "No father, I do not fear you." I looked out into the ocean, wishing Morpheus would just go away. In a low voice, I asked, "How did you even get into Camp? I thought the gods who joined Kronos were banned from here."

Morpheus' mouth tightened and his grey eyes turned hard, but he kept an overall calm persona. "The gods always have a way against their bans. Look at Percy's father, didn't he get around his ban?"

A pang of anger erupted in my gut; his voice made it sound like Percy was a mistake or something. Then again, someone for the Titans wouldn't want someone who was dead set against the Titans and able to defeat their army.

I grinded my teeth, "Not to be rude, father, but what do you want?"

He grinned again, seemingly happy about me cutting to the chase. "I've seen your abilities child, even if you don't fully get them yet. You are a strong girl, Violet; I wish for you to stand by my side during the war against the gods."

I looked away, making eye contact with a naiad, who looked half revolted, half shocked. I thought for half a second and decided.

"No."

Morpheus rounded on me, eyes wide with anger. "What?"

I looked back into his eyes filled with fury. "I can't betray my friends. You may want the Titans to win, father, but I am all for the gods."

He shook his head, eyes turning to venomous slits. I flinched in fear; his body was glowing gold slightly, like he was about to reveal his true form. "Do you not understand what benefits you would get from the Titans? If you fight against us, you will certainly die; if you fight with us, Kronos will reward you with immortality and the title of goddess."

For one minute I considered that. I pictured myself talking the place of one of the Olympian gods, wearing one of their golden dresses and sitting upon a throne, people bowing down to me. And then I pictured myself fighting against Michael and fought back the urge to throw up.

I could never do that.

Voice shaking with fear, I looked back into Morpheus' face. "I'm sorry, but I don't care about the benefits. My friends are more important that being a goddess."

Morpheus seemed to glow brighter and stood up, walking in anger. I stood too, backing up slightly into the water, hand brought up to my bracelet to bring out my sword if need be.

Slowly, he turned back to me, face dead and without emotion. "You are lucky it is impossible for me to kill you in the Camp boundaries, Violet. When I meet you in battle, you will regret not joining me."

With that, Morpheus was gone in a blur of sand.

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*Author's Note*

Filler chapter…kinda…I added stuff I didn't want to, sorry.

Reviews are appreciated!

XxSamacoyxX


	20. Chapter 20: A Family Affair

I allowed myself to have a freak out session for only an hour. I sat by myself on the beach, bawling my eyes out and questioning what was going to happen to me. I was too afraid to return to the Hermes cabin and sleep, fearing of what my father would show me in my dreams. The naiad who'd witnessed the conversation with my father tried consoling me, but I was too ashamed to look her in the eyes.

I was born to betray my friends. Either that, or I would die. I had no doubt in my mind that my father would not spare me in battle. After all, he'd killed my previous siblings and even said he'd do so himself. I feared death, but I would always choose death than to be a traitor.

After a while of moping and self-pity, I strolled back to the Hermes cabin to wait for morning. It was two hours later that my world changed.

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The attack came right after dawn. Lights blazing, screaming in the distance. Half-blinded by tears, I ran through the forest, shield and sword in hand. Clarisse was running right next to me, screaming at the top of her lungs as she collided with full force into the enemy.

Luke had invaded a town nearby.

His army was slaying innocent mortals and taking young children captive, most likely to be used a servants to Kronos. Everyone kept asking why Luke would devise a takeover a small town of about 1,000 people who would be no use to Kronos and his army, but I knew.

He was trying to lure us out so he could puncture our numbers.

Kronos already had a larger number of demigods and miscellaneous monsters to fight for him and they easily overtook us number wise. But we had more skill, more practice, more of a cause to fight for. While his demigods were blinded and brainwashed, we saw the truth. We'd keep fighting until the last demigod fell down.

Plus, it was our duty to help the mortals. We were heroes.

For a moment, I wondered if Luke had attacked the town to get me to leave the Camp. My father had said himself that he couldn't kill me while I was in the boundaries of Camp. The second I left Camp, I'd be eligible for homicide. And I knew he wanted me dead, that a lot of people did. Because my abilities matched his, I was a threat.

I'd be able to imitate Kronos. I'd be able to get into his thoughts. I'd be able to know his battle strategy.

But I didn't stop to hide in Camp. I ran at top speed with my friends into the center of the small town, where houses were on fire and people were screaming in the streets, chased down by demigods with their swords raised high in the air. Immediately, I ran forward and attacked the enemy.

I didn't stop to consider who I was fighting. Clarisse had drilled that into my head the second I started training; looking into the eyes of my enemy could make me falter. I didn't matter that the boy I was currently locked in a fight looked like he was about twelve years old. He was a traitor and just as willing to kill someone innocent.

I took him down in less than five Mississippi's. While he was small and quick with a sword, he was no match for me. If I could take down Clarisse and half her siblings, I could take down nearly anyone.

The boy fell to the ground, clutching his stomach wound. I spared him one glance before I jumped over his twitching body to attack three demigods running after a small girl. The tallest turned towards me, sword swinging madly. Our blades met and clanged; the two others turned their attention away from the fleeing girl and turned to me. I rested my gaze on their childlike faces before I struck them.

The three went down as easily as the young boy.

Percy was just a few feet away from me, fighting fiercely against a boy about four times his size; he was the spitting image of Ares. I moved forward to help Percy, but his eyes flashed, "No Violet! Find Luke! Try and keep him busy!"

The probable son of Ares turned his head towards me and snorted as his sword clanged against Percy's. "She's going to take on Luke," he laughed, "I'd like to see that happen."

Percy's face contorted and he swung his sword harder. I turned away and immediately set out a search for Luke. There were several injured on the ground, a mix of enemy demigods and Campers. A yard off, Clarisse was fighting a girl bright red hair and a sneer on her face. Clarisse was whipping her butt, however, I noticed a huge gash in Clarisse's left leg; blood was pouring out.

I ran to her and stabbed at the girl, relieving Clarisse. As the girl and I began to combat, Clarisse stumbled off, probably to another fight. The girl was a good fighter, a lot quicker on her toes than the other demigods we were fighting against. Her wild eyes sparkled with intensity and with hope that she'd take me down, but I stabbed her in the stomach, sending her sprawling to the ground.

In a second, my sword clanged against another unnamed demigod who turned against her own heritage. Her eyes flashed with pure anger and hatred; she swiveled to jab her sword in-between my armor. I deflected her with my shield. Hitting her in the face with the hilt of my sword, the blonde demigod was down on the ground and wasn't getting back up soon.

I looked all around me; a group of kids barely old enough to wear make-up or not need a babysitter were engaged in full scale battle, dropping like flies. Blood was all around; screams filled the air. Swords clanged against one another, the deathly sound ringing in everyone's ears.

This wasn't right. This shouldn't have been happening. Our parents didn't have us so we could just kill one another; we went to Camp to fight monsters, not our siblings.

Just a couple yards away, Luke was battling Clarisse. She put up a dangerous fight, but her injured leg made it hard to win. As I ran forward to help her, Luke stabbed Clarisse in-between her armor, causing the daughter of Ares to fall with a sickening look on her face.

Luke quickly looked around, trying to find Percy, I assumed when I got his attention. He grinned darkly and prepared his sword as I ran forward; within seconds, we were inches apart, swords striking one another. His hot breath tickled my cheek as he raised his sword to slit my throat; I deflected him with my own sword, but his blade accidentally cut my cheek as I pushed him away.

Immediately, he counterattacked and struck me with my signature move: he turned on his heel, a fake out move that looked as if he was going to attack my midsection. Instead, he whipped his sword into my legs and struck my face with his shield, throwing me backwards.

I landed in a heap on the ground, legs burning with pain and blood falling freely from my wounds. Luke stood over me, grinning with victory, sword blade at my throat.

"Sorry, Violet, but you should have joined us. You could have been a Queen amongst the mortals."

He hesitated just one more second, before he lunged his sword down. In a fit of strength, I met his attack with my shield. I whipped my sword at his chest, but he quickly backed up, face filled with anger. I stood and engaged him in battle once more.

I was a better fighter than Luke. He was really good and could put up a good fight against everyone other that Thalia, daughter of Zeus, but I was really good too. The first time I had a sword in hand on the Princess Andromeda, I was able to fight Luke off. Now that I'd been training over well over a month, I would have no problem killing him.

And he knew it.

Suddenly, Luke wasn't fighting and two teenagers appeared at his side, both of them sans swords and shields. The girl on his right was one of the prettiest people I'd ever seen, but her expression and grin was dark and sent shivers down my spine. The boy on his left looked very similar, except he was just a tad bit less creepy than the girl.

Luke grinned. I didn't attack him, but I kept my sword raised high in the air.

"May I introduce you to Josie and Ryan, Violet," Luke asked sweetly. "They're the children of Phobetor and Phantasos, your cousins."

My eyes widened involuntarily. Phobetor created nightmares and fears, hence the term "phobia" comes from him; Phantasos himself created what would be in one's dreams. The two of them and my father combined ruled the dream world. The three of them were teaming up to raise the Titan king and bring down the gods.

It was a family affair.

I was blasted back. I landed flat on my back on the ground. Looking around, I saw a small tornado roaming about, throwing people left and right. Flabbergasted, I turned back to Luke and my cousins. Josie's grin widened.

"Fabulous, isn't it cousin? We can take anything from the dream world and make it real!"

Almost immediately, a man with a mask and a knife was standing over me, slicing down and cutting my arm. I thrust my sword at him, nailing him in the chest; he erupted into dust.

I stood and Luke smiled. "You can do it too, Violet. If you join us, we can teach you how. Just declare your loyalty to Kronos." Luke held out his hand to me, smiling kindly, like he really cared if I was a follower of Kronos…as if he cared about me. Josie and Ryan stood dutifully at his side, waiting for my answer.

Their expressions turned deadly, however, when I jerked away from Luke. Immediately, his smile faded and he backed up away from, shaking his head sadly. Josie and Ryan moved forward and three things happened at once.

Clarisse, Annabeth, Percy, Grover and Michael were on their knees, crying their eyes out. Several enemy demigods had their swords at their throats, seemingly waiting on the order to kill my friends. Campers laid all over, bloody and dying. The enemy demigods were cheering and shouting with glee.

Clarisse cried out to me, "Please, Violet, help us!" Her voice sounded so broken and I'd never heard her sound so afraid. Clarisse was such a rock and a brave girl; how could this happen?

Michael looked up at me from where he kneels on the ground. His eyes are so full of pain and filled with tears. His face is a bloody mass and his voice croaks, "Just join them, Violet. We'll all be able to live if you just join them."

Percy and Annabeth nod at his side fiercely, while Grover screams for Juniper. Off in the distance, Juniper is screaming for him too, but there's a sword at her neck and she can't go forward to be with Grover. My heart begins to literally break at the sight of the two lovers.

"Please, Violet, do it. You know you want to. Your destiny is to betray us…now you can do it and save us too."

I look back into Michael's pleading eyes and shake my head, tears pouring from my own eyes. "But I can't! I can't turn my back on civilization! Kronos will just kill the mortals!"

Michael's face turned hard and his eyes fierce. "This is your destiny, Violet! You were born to kill and born to take down the gods! You're a disgusting piece of crap that doesn't deserve to live, so you might as well stop living and serve yourself to the Lord Kronos!"

"Violet, don't listen to it!" I turned to look at Clarisse. Her eyes were filled with shock and brimming with tears. I scrunched my eyebrows and turned away to look at the ground.

There were two Clarisses. One was on the ground, crying her eyes out as a man had a sword at her throat. The other was standing next to me, her face twisted with pain and urgency. She reached out to me, grabbing my shoulder.

"Please, Violet, snap out of it. They're not real!"

I shook my head, letting my hot tears flow freely. "No! You're going to die!"

I looked back down at Michael who glared at me with resentful eyes. Clarisse grabbed my chin and forced me to look into her eyes. "That's not Michael! Michael's running over her right now!"

In just a second, Michael was standing by my side. His eyes drifted over to the group on the ground, including him. My mind was running amok. My friends were about to die, and yet I was imagining doubles of Clarisse and Michael. I tried pulling away from them, but they each had a grip on my arms.

"Please don't listen to them Violet! Josie and Ryan are making you see them, they aren't real!"

I shook my head again, "You're not real!"

And suddenly, Michael's lips were crashing down onto mine. In an instant, my friends at the edge of death disappeared in a cloud of dust and Michael backed up away from me. He grinned slightly, "Real enough for you?"

I looked ahead and noticed Luke was missing. Josie and Ryan stood with furious looks on their faces. Josie raised her hand and all of a sudden, we were surrounded by fire. I pulled away from Michael and ran forward, slashing the air in front of Josie with my sword. She evaded my swing with a duck and thrust a sword that seemed to come from nowhere at me.

I met her attack with my shield, which she raised her eyebrows to. Beside us, Clarisse was attacking Ryan, who also had a sword appear out of thin air. It seemed like it was really true that they could make anything come from the dream world. After all, they made my biggest fear appear.

I didn't want the Prophecy that I knew was made about my father and one of his children. The only reason he would have children is because he was once told that a child of his would turn their back against the gods and help him fight with Kronos. After that, Morpheus was to be treated much better than he was now.

And I was deeply afraid that my friends would discover what was foretold. Surely they could cast me out, scared that I would betray them. Better yet, I was afraid that I myself would turn against them. Josie and Ryan must have known my insecurity, so they made it happen.

I wonder if I could do the same to them.

I forced myself to watch Josie as we fought. In just a few seconds, time seemed to slow and I watched all of her actions carefully, scanning over her movements. Suddenly, I was looking at myself through her eyes; her memories, thoughts and feelings rushed through me and I was back to normal; time resumed itself.

I mimicked her strikes, mirroring her almost exactly as we fought against one another. My hair flung in front of me and it was suddenly not dark anymore; it was her shade of blonde. I knew that I took on Josie's looks, as I'd once done to Clarisse.

I quickly scanned through the thoughts I collected from her and found her innermost fear. I concentrated hard; I forced myself to pretend that her fear was out of the dream world and in reality. Half a second later, Josie stopped fighting and looked over my shoulder. I turned.

Standing there Phobetor, almost a twin of Morpheus, especially with his death glare. Of course, I quickly realized that it wasn't the actual Phobetor, but an image. Josie probably did too, but she looked to stunned to really process that. I stepped back as the image moved to Josie, hand raised.

"You're such a screw up, Josephine! I gave you one simple order and you couldn't even do that! If you can't follow orders, how are you supposed to become a goddess under Kronos' rule? Tell me!"

Josie's eyes filled with tears and terror as she backed up. "I'm sorry! I tried, she's just more powerful than we thought! I didn't know that she'd be able to resist!"

I turned away from Josie and the image, feeling almost bad, but I had more to worry about. Michael and Clarisse were both battling Ryan, who kept making fire and monsters dance around the two. Ryan slashed his sword at Michael, cutting said boy on the cheek.

I quickly concentrated on Ryan and found his fears within seconds: he was afraid of drowning. I forced myself to pull a pool-full of water out of thin air and struck Ryan with such force that he fell back and became engulfed with the water.

Michael and Clarisse turned to me with eyes full of shock and awe, but I suddenly felt tired and overworked; taking stuff from the dream world really takes it out of you. I collapsed to the ground with a final image of Michael running forward to grab me and demigods fighting left and right.

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*Author's Note*

I hope I wrote it to were it makes since, because I fear that it doesn't. It was kind of rushed, but I didn't want it to be too long. This was about 11 pages long; the first one I wrote was about twenty something….anyways, sorry it took so long. Usually, I'm pretty good at updating, but I've been up to so many things lately.

Reviews are appreciated!

XxSamacoyxX


	21. Chapter 21: Dionysus Wants Me Dead

I woke up to a girl standing over me. She smiled kindly and patted my head, "Stay calm now dear, I will not harm you." The girl appeared to be about eight years old and wore a simple brown dress with a sweater. Her red hair was wrapped into a French braid and her eyes seemed to dance with fire.

"Hestia," I croaked. Her smile widened.

"You're a clever girl. Most people don't get it that fast."

"Your eyes…"

Hestia rolled her eyes and swept a strand hair from my face.

I was no longer in the tiny town or even at Camp Half-Blood. Instead, I was looking up at the Twelve Olympian gods, all in the form of giants. Michael, Clarisse, Annabeth and Percy were all next to their respective parents, talking in whispers.

"I'm in Olympus," I asked Hestia softly. She nodded.

"You were passed out when they brought you here. I knew just a warm touch would bring you around darling."

I smiled to myself. It felt like I had my mom back or something, only Hestia was better than a simple mortal to have as a mother. Too bad she couldn't have been my godly parent rather than Morpheus. Hestia hushed me and stroked my hair, like she knew what I was thinking or something.

Zeus cleared his throat and all talking ceased in the throne room. My friends turned around and stood dutifully on the right side of their parents' thrones, deadly silent and respectful. Zeus rested his gaze on me before he started talking.

"We have a big problem on our hands. Luke and…our Father's army is threatening the mortals knowing of our existence. The daughter of Athena seems to think that they only attacked the town to draw Violet out so Morpheus could convince her to join the Titans."

Everyone turned to look at me and I couldn't help but blush. No, it wasn't just because the Greek gods were looking at me; it was because they were right. The only reason why innocent people and children were getting slaughtered was because of me.

Zeus was impatient and barked out, "Well girl? Speak!"

"Annabeth's right…I snuck out of my cabin last night and Morpheus tried getting me to join him in Kronos' army. He'd done that to my siblings before and they refused, so he killed them."

Thunder rolled in the distance and Zeus' eyes seemed to flicker with lightning. "And girl? What did you say to Morpheus?"

"I said no…I told him that I didn't want to be the goddess that he promised I would be if it meant hurting my friends."

Athena's eyes widened and turned to look at her father with surprise. Zeus looked calmly at Apollo who was staring at me intently. "Apollo?"

Michael looked briefly up at his father before he locked eyes with me, giving me a small smile. Apollo looked back at Zeus, "I can sense her telling the truth, Father. I can tell there's no evil in her heart."

Zeus sat back, apparently satisfied with that answer. "Congratulations Violet, we've decided not to kill you."

Dionysus raised a lazy hand, "We didn't get to vote. I don't like her!"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes at him, "You hate every demigod who goes through Camp. In fact I think you just dislike them because you got yourself stuck there."

"If you didn't make me fall for her, I wouldn't be in this position in the first place!"

Aphrodite opened her mouth to retort, but Zeus cut her off. "Will you two stop? I've been hearing this for too long and I do not wish to hear about it for the next 100 years!"

Aphrodite shut her mouth and Dionysus sneered. Zeus stood and motioned for Hera to follow him; she watched me for one moment before she stood up as well and left the throne room with him. Michael walked over to me and helped me stand up, with me hardly noticing that I was still sitting on the ground.

He smiled and caressed my cheek. I grinned right back, "I take it you're not mad at me still, Michael?"

Michael grimaced. "I wasn't mad at you…I was just afraid."

I rolled my eyes as Clarisse, Percy and Annabeth started walking over to us. "I told you that you didn't have to worry, Michael. I know the difference between right and wrong."

Clarisse strung an arm around my shoulder, smiling brightly. "You have some wicked powers, Vi. I had some doubt in you when your dad claimed you, but not anymore!"

I smiled, "Yeah…I guess mimicking them and making their dreams real was cool, but it took a lot out of me."

She frowned, "Yeah, that was cool. But sucking them into the dream world was even cooler! At least we don't have to worry about them for awhile!"

I frowned as well. "What are you talking about?"

Percy grinned, "After you passed out, Josie and Ryan just disappeared. There was a huge flash and they were gone. Zeus said that you forced them into the dream world; they can't get out unless you let them out!"

I raised my eyebrows, surprised. How in the world could I do that?

"May I speak to Violet?"

The others turned around. The gods were all filing out of the throne room, some talking to one another. Aphrodite, however, was regular sized and standing just a few feet away.

I could clearly see why Aphrodite was the Goddess of Beauty and why her children were always some of the most good looking. Aphrodite was gorgeous. Standing near her made me feel inferior, although I wasn't that bad of a looker. Her long, strawberry-blonde locks were in curls and her bright blue eyes shone with something wicked.

Percy nodded dumbly, as did Michael, but Annabeth and Clarisse didn't seem phased. "Yeah, sure." Clarisse took Percy's upper arm and dragged him away; Annabeth did the same to Michael. Hestia stepped away from me and walked to the middle of the room where a fire sat for her. In less than a minute, Aphrodite and I were alone.

She smiled brightly, "It's a pleasure to meet you Violet…you're so much prettier in person."

I blushed, "Thank you my lady."

Aphrodite rolled her eyes, "Why do you mortals always say that? It's true, you're stunning! In fact, I find you more beautiful than your sisters were. Especially Sakhmet, spoiled little brat. Beg your pardon, but I thought she deserved to be cut off."

My eyes flashed to hers and for a moment, hers were dark. She went on, "Sorry. But Sakhmet kept begging us to let her be a goddess. She kept acting like we owed her something, but all she did all day was going around and robbing mortals. Sakhmet broke so many hearts, and not even in the way I like."

I nodded slowly and looked over at my friends who were watching us curiously. "I don't mean to bother you Aphrodite, but what did you want to talk to me about?"

She smiled once more, "So impatient you mortals. I just wanted to talk about you and the son of Apollo."

I perked my ears and looked away from my friends. Her eyes were dark again and her smile was faltering a bit.

"You see…I've foreseen something while I was spending a bit of time with the Fates. I like you and Michael together, but I wish to warn you that continuing a relationship with that boy will only bring bad health."

I frowned and looked at Michael who was watching me closely, like he was trying to figure out what I was thinking or something. From across the room, he smiled and raised his eyebrows. I looked back to the Goddess who was also watching Michael.

"What do you mean, bad health?"

Aphrodite sighed and turned back to me. "It's complicated and I am not permitted to give anything away, Violet. I just wish for you to know that Michael is not your soul mate."

My heart sank. "But I love him."

Aphrodite put her hand on my arm, eyes pleading. "I have no doubt that you love him, Violet. I can feel what your heart tells you and I know you love him dearly…I just wish for you to know that if you continue to be in any kind of relationship with him, your heart will only be shattered. Turn your heart else where; soon you will find the man you are meant to be with."

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I know she's the Goddess of Love and all…but how could Michael be bad for me? He wasn't abusive or mean or anything. He was a true gentlemen and only believed in the best of people. Unless…

"Why is he not good for me?"

Aphrodite shook her head, hair barely moving. "I wish I could tell you, so you'd understand and be able to cope quicker, but I am forbidden. I am not allowed to interfere with what must happen."

She smiled one last time and turned away, turning back into a giant and leaving the throne room. Hestia grinned to me from her place at the fire, but didn't say anything. The others came back to where I stood, questioning looks on their faces. Michael grabbed my hand and asked sweetly why I looked like I was about to cry.

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We returned to Camp within just a couple of hours. Everyone was already back to training. Despite a lot of injuries, we only had one casualty: Jenna Lao, a sixteen year old girl from the Hephaestus cabin. I was overcome with sadness, although I barely knew her. She died and it was my fault because Luke only attacked so they could get a shot at me.

Immediately, Percy and I went down to the fighting arena were we practiced for three hours straight.

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That night, I didn't immediately start dreaming. Instead, I was in a large white area: the dream world. The last time I entered it, I was with Tutankhamun. This time, Josie and Ryan stood together, looks of pure hatred on their faces.

I smiled to myself and strolled over to them. Josie immediately got into my face, but I somehow knew she couldn't hurt me. "Get us out of here or you'll be sorry cousin! Just wait until my father comes for you!"

"I have a feeling he'd come to punish you rather than me, Josie. After all, didn't you screw up?"

Josie's eyes widened and she backed away, walking into nothingness. A second later, she walked straight back up to us, despite me clearly seeing her disappear into the white. Immediately, I knew the dream world played tricks on people; she'd always end up where I wanted her to be. Her father may create bad dreams, but my father was the one who made the dreams exist. While Josie was powerful, I was the "god" here.

I smirked to myself and looked over at Ryan who seemed to be thinking the same thing as me. He, at least, seemed to know better than to speak out. I could put him in his own personal hell if I wanted to.

Josie shook her head, tears almost welling up in her eyes. "The Titans will win, Violet and you know it. You pathetic Campers stand no chance against our army."

"A lot of talk for someone who's already lost, Josie."

With that, I closed my eyes and felt myself leave Josie and Ryan. The next second, I felt myself in an unfamiliar place. I opened my eyes and found myself at the park. Of course, I knew it wasn't a real park, but it felt real. It seemed like something I would dream, but I instantly felt uncomfortable.

I was in someone else's dream.

I walked forward and felt a breeze. Looking down, I was in a white dress and my long hair was curled. Inside, I knew I was only here because someone had been dreaming of me; when I shifted to go to the "regular" dreams of mine, I ended up in someone's dreams.

I looked around for the culprit but only came face to face with a tan boy with black hair and blue eyes. I could feel my breath catch as I looked into his eyes; they were so full of light and adoration.

"There you are, " he said in a husky voice that nearly made me swoon. He grabbed my hand, his calloused fingers rubbing mine. His touch was almost electric and sent me heartbeat skyrocketing.

He led me to a blanket that was covered with food. I sat down on the blanket next to him and he grinned, flashing me with a set of perfect teeth. I blushed and he laughed, leaning in slowly and hovering his face just barely an inch from mine. His hot breath tickled my skin and smelled strongly of Vanilla.

His lips touched mine. My entire body went limp at the touch and my heart did a back flip. After a second, the boy pulled away and smiled. We stared at one another for several minutes before he looked down at the food. "What would you like to eat?"

I smiled to myself. I didn't know who this boy was, but I knew this was him: the soul mate Aphrodite talked about.

And I was going to find him.

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*Author's Note*

I have something to tell you…this is the end of "Street Rat." Now, I know what some people well say : "What the hell? Just leave it like that!? What are you playing at!?"….but it's not just ending like this. My friend Becca's known about this before she even started reading the story, but there's going to be a sequel that I'll be posting soon; it'll be called "Sleepyhead." I'd made a timeline and outline for the entire story, and this is where it ended. I'll pick right back up in "Sleepyhead," so if you want the Saga to continue, just read that when I post it.

I'll probably post the first chapter of "Sleepyhead" in a few days…

Thank you to those who've actually read it (and reviewed!):

Olympian Offspring

Katoo

DreamingStorm

kittyxx92

T18T18

nic

earthlover

worldnerd12

filly10

Red Iris7963

Cass

Nico Rocks

acast

MaxRideRox

xking23

loloswims

Mz. Raine

CherubGurl96

Special thanks to Becca ("oh, that sounds really cool. I'll check it out!) and Nitrea who was the first person to read and review my story!


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